


Night Terrors

by Monti_B_Lewis



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega elements for worldbuilding, Angst, Art, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Dubious Consent, Emotional Trauma, Eventual Romance, Fanart, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Gore, Slow Burn, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 21:54:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 118,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11700618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Monti_B_Lewis/pseuds/Monti_B_Lewis
Summary: After his mistake during a mission leaves Shiro dangerously wounded and Keith furious beyond belief, Lance's confidence is completely shot. To prove himself and his place in the team, he decides to secretly investigate a distress signal and goes off on a solo mission. Things go well… until they don't.From there, Lance's solo mission gradually turns into a nightmare that keeps on getting worse. And his team isn't there to save him.





	1. Abrupt Awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic has been in the works since August of last year and with season 3 about to come out, it's high time I finally post it before it joins the graveyard of forever unfinished WIPs on my harddrive. Aside from some final things, I have the majority of this story drafted, so I should be able to upload weekly; every Friday most likely. Hope you enjoy!

"There's still more coming!" A hint of panic snuck into Pidge's already nervous voice.

"I'm on it!" came Lance's ecstatic response, the remaining paladins only able to watch the Blue Lion speed off straight towards the enemy reinforcements.

"Lance!" Pidge screeched, frustrated. "That wasn't your cue to jump in!" 

"Stay in formation, Lance," Shiro warned, voice firm, yet some trepidation showing through.

A chuckle came from Lance's side, the Blue Paladin not slowing down in his pursuit of more enemies. "It's gonna be fine! They're all small fry!" True to his word, Lance began mowing down cargo ships several times the size of his lion like they were toys. He would strategically shoot an ice beam to knock ships into each other and make the resulting explosions cause a chain reaction, blowing away almost ten ships at once. 

"Lance, don't forget what we came here for!" Hunk warned, a hint of annoyance to his tone.

Of course, Lance didn't notice that slight edge of anger. "Aren't you seeing this?! I'm completely trashing the place!" 

Eventually, Shiro chimed in again. "We're not here to have fun, Lance. We're just here to disrupt Galra transportation routes and maybe get some information. Engage enemies only when necessary." 

"Fine, fine," Lance murmured begrudgingly, already beginning to steer his lion towards the rest of his team. "Don't regret this lat–" Lance's words were cut off by something crashing into him and almost sending him tumbling through space. He was barely able to get his lion steady again. "What–"

"Jet fighters!" Pidge yelled. "They were hiding among the cargo ships! Looks like they're pretty heavily armed!"

Within a matter of seconds, Lance was suddenly surrounded on all sides. He had distanced himself too much from the others, resulting in the jet fighters being able to shoot at him from all sides without having to worry about the other paladins. Scarlet red warning messages were flitting all around Lance's cockpit, alarms going off seemingly everywhere, echoing within his throbbing skull. It took all his concentration and every ounce of his skills as a pilot just to evade the storm of lasers suddenly raining down on him. "Damn," he hissed, the yells of the other paladins slowly fading as all his senses focused on just _surviving_. He became hyperaware of the many enemies suddenly all focusing their fire on him, his entire body controlling the Blue Lion almost on auto-pilot. There was no processing of information, thinking up strategies or weighing his options, just reacting. No time for thought out plans, just pure instinct. 

These jet fighters were fast. They knew the lions were superior in virtually every way imaginable, so they were using the fact that Lance lacked Keith's speed to hide behind cargo ships, essentially using them as living shields. 

"Stop hiding, goddammit!" More than once Lance would destroy slow cargo ships in his attempts to hit the nimble jet fighters, cursing under his breath each time. He grew frantic and annoyed, his movements more erratic and unpredictable. It was getting harder and harder to keep a cool head. He could feel his own hands shaking and his heart almost jumping into his throat, heat shooting into his face and setting his head on fire. "Shit, shit, shit…!" 

Suddenly, three shots seemed to hit him at once, this time actually sending his lion tumbling. Again and again he was hit, making Lance completely unable to center himself again, much less shoot back. And maybe he was just imagining it, but was one of those cruisers loading up its ion cannon? Staring down that barrel, it almost looked like a dying star, growing brighter and brighter, more ominous with each second that Lance was being thrown around space like a rag doll. "Fuck…" His voice was quiet, tone indicating resignation. Somewhere in the fog of his mind he could hear people yelling his name and already knew how this was going to end. 

Lance waited for the impact, the inevitable heat of his lion taking the full brunt of that attack. He waited and waited… but nothing happened. 

He cracked open his eyes, only then realising he had closed them. It took him a second to make out what was going on; even longer to make sense of what he was seeing. Then he finally heard it. The angry and fearful yells of "Lance!" had instead shifted into horrified screams of "Shiro!". 

"What… Shiro?" The Black Lion was floating in front of Lance, motionless. The dying star was gone. "No, wait why–!"

"He jumped in front of you!" Keith suddenly screamed, catapulting Lance back into reality and making him painfully aware of the fact that Shiro's line was dead. There was no reassuring "I'm fine" or any indication that there was any life inside that enormous black lion. 

Keith was still yelling at him – _"Why didn't you just stay in formation!_ _Can't you not be a flashy dumbass for once and stop trying to impress people!_ _It's your fault that Shiro is"–_ but Lance barely heard any of it. His ears were ringing, his heart still racing. He could vaguely make out the other lions taking out what remained of the jet fighters, while Lance's lion stayed still.  

"Shiro… because of me…" 

* * *

Lance expected it, but he still flinched when Keith all but assaulted him as soon as he entered the bridge. Keith slammed him against the nearest wall and he most likely would have beaten the living shit out of him in his blind rage, had Hunk not interfered and pulled him back. 

"Keith, calm down!" Hunk yelled. "This isn't gonna help!" 

The Red Paladin didn't seem to hear or care. His eyes were brimming with hate and rage and it was all directed at Lance. "He sacrificed himself for you, you piece of shit! Because you couldn't _fucking_ listen to orders and had to be a showoff!"

Not knowing how to respond, Lance simply continued leaning against the wall, not trusting his own legs to keep him steady otherwise. Having this kind of forceful aggression directed at him left him unable to speak, the intensity of Keith's rage-filled eyes piercing his chest and leaving him breathless. 

The door slid open in that moment and Allura stepped in looking frazzled, but not nearly as panicked as her paladins. "Coran is tending to Shiro. He will try his best to treat his head wound and then put him into one of the cryo-replenishers."

"So he's going to be fine?" Pidge immediately asked, eyes shining with hope.

Allura seemed hesitant to answer, which was _definitely_ not a good sign. "The bruises, scratches and broken bones will heal within a day. But his head wound could be a different story." She didn't seem to want to elaborate, but with everyone shooting expectant looks at her, she eventually sighed. "Cryo-replenishers are, for the most part, used for minor to moderate wounds. They are not built to heal something as delicate and fragile as a brain. They can mend bones with incredible accuracy and close wounds without leaving even the hint of a scar, but they are not perfect. And even the slightest imperfection in healing a brain could…" She suddenly trailed off, shifting around nervously. "Well… I think you can imagine." 

Hearing that seemed to refuel Keith's anger and within a split second, he was at Lance's throat again. "This is all your fault!" he roared, fingers closing around Lance's shirt collar and pushing him up against the wall. "If you had just done what you were told…! If you had just listened… _none_ of this would have happened!" Again Hunk had to pull Keith away, but somehow the brunet broke free right away and was back to clawing at Lance. "You're completely useless to this team! We would be so much better off if you had just stayed in the garrison!" 

Lance noticed the shift. He could tell that this wasn't just about Shiro anymore. This was about Keith's personal grudges against him, things he had held against Lance even before this whole mess. "What the fuck are you talking about?" He winced when Keith dug his fingers into his collar to the point that it began choking him. It felt like Keith's hands were about to burn through his clothes and then his skin, going on and on, down to his bones, until only ash would be left. "The one who can't follow orders is you, isn't it? At least I didn't get kicked out of the fighter pilot class for insubordination like you, you stuck up prick!" He shoved at Keith's chest to get him off of him, but that only resulted in making the other angrier.

"It's not my fault the garrison instructors are all power-hungry assholes who can't take some lip from a teenager! But of course that doesn't bother you cause the only chance _you_ ever got as a fighter pilot was because of _me_ getting kicked! Don't act like you would have had a chance otherwise! I'm _still_ shocked they let you in!" 

More and more Lance was filling up with anger and shame, hands beginning to shake where they were fisting Keith's jacket. "I would have gotten in eventu–"

"With what skill?!" Keith cut him off. "Your shit piloting? Your horrendous leadership? Your brilliant tactics that got Shiro _hurt_?" Keith's voice nearly cracked with the volume he was yelling at. "What do you have to offer? When has you being here ever benefitted anyone?" Behind him, both Hunk and Pidge tried reasoning with him, Hunk trying again and again to pull him off of Lance, without success. "All you ever do is get us into more trouble!"

Lance's entire body seemed to sizzle at the accusations, eyes growing wide with ire. "I saved Coran when Sendak invaded the Castle! Without me–"

"Without you, Shiro wouldn't have had to stay back to watch over you and Sendak wouldn't have had _two_ paladins as hostages to pressure us!" 

"Coran would have gotten killed without me!"

"You should have saved him without getting yourself hurt and inconveniencing everyone around you! Stop trying to be some flashy hero and think before you act!"

"I…" Lance wanted to argue, he really did, but… he couldn't. Keith was right. Would things have gone more smoothly if he hadn't been there? What would have happened if he had noticed the bomb earlier and warned Coran in time? Had there been a better way to handle that situation?

" _You_ should have been the one to get hit by that laser blast, not Shiro!" 

Lance went slack at the words, while Keith's hold on him only tightened. The hands pulling at his collar suddenly felt like they were wrapped around his throat, slowly choking him.

"KEITH!" both Hunk and Allura shouted, Hunk finally succeeding in separating the brunet from Lance and restraining him. "You're going way too far!" he barked, worried eyes drifting to Lance. "Lance, you… Lance? Hey–" 

Before Hunk could get the words out, Lance was already bolting away through the sliding door, away from his team.

_Keith is right._

* * *

No matter how much he tried, Lance couldn't sleep. The guilt over what had happened to Shiro was crippling, not to mention all the things Keith had said. His every word was ringing in his ears, seeming trapped within his skull. More than once he felt tears dripping over his nose, only to quickly wipe them away. Even to himself he didn't want to admit his own weakness. More and more he curled in on himself, until he had buried himself into a tight cocoon of blankets and pillows. "Must be getting a cold," he mumbled, wiping a finger over his nose when he sniffled. 

After another torturous ten minutes of not falling asleep, Lance threw back his blanket and jumped out of bed. He wouldn't be going to sleep anytime soon, so he might as well explore the Castle while no one else was around. Stepping out of his room, he cautiously checked to see if anyone else was out and about, but of course it was eerily empty. Letting out a sigh of relief, he crossed his arms and walked at a leisurely pace. At first he had no specific destination, but once he walked by the medical wing, he considered checking up on Shiro. He made it as far as three steps towards the wing, before he remembered Keith's angry and hate-filled glare and decided against it. Hunching his shoulders, he decided to just go to the bridge. Even with everything that had happened, he still had a longing to see the stars. 

The moment he stepped into the bridge, everything that had transpired in the room came rushing into his mind even more intensely than it already had been. He could almost hear Keith's screaming voice bouncing off the walls and feel the brunet's fingers digging into his skin, burning through him and scorching him to the core. Sighing, Lance dropped heavily into his bridge chair and absentmindedly booted up his computer. After typing in one of the few Altean sequences of symbols he knew, the panels blocking off the windows slid away to reveal the unending galaxy surrounding the Castle. Lance slumped down into his chair until he was practically lying in it horizontally, trying to take in the sight. Seeing the stars littered across the sky, unchanged and ever present, had always been a source of comfort. Like the sun and the moon, they came and went, always disappearing and returning. Sometimes they seemed like the only thing Lance could count on. But no matter how he shifted and fidgeted, no amount of staring up at the glittering stars above was giving him that familiar sense of calm he had been longing for. 

The door suddenly slid open and Coran walked in, seeming oblivious to Lance's presence. He was walking with a steaming cup of… _something_ in his hand; knowing Coran, Lance didn't even want to know what it was. When he did notice Lance, he jumped a little, letting out a small squawk of surprise. "Gidday, Lance! Fancy meeting you at this time of night. Any particular reason you aren't asleep in bed?" 

"Uh…" Apparently Coran wasn't fully aware of what exactly had happened and for a second, Lance considered updating him so he, too, could look at the Blue Paladin with disappointment and anger. But he didn't. "Just… I can't sleep. Having trouble relaxing." 

"Oh, bugger! Perhaps I should prepare you a cuppa of the traditional Altean tea that my mother used make for this kind of situation. It's absolutely lovely! Smells a wee bit strange but sends you straight to slumberland. I've been trying to somehow bung it together. My mother never did tell me what it was that would knock my lights out like that."

"I uh… I'll pass, thanks," Lance laughed nervously, not quite sure he wanted to trust Coran's dubious concoction. Or his mother, as a matter of fact.

"Suit yourself."  

Lance curled up on his bridge chair, laying his head down on his knees. "How is Shiro?" 

Coran was uncharacteristically quiet, swishing a small spoon through the liquid in his cup, before taking a sip. "Better than expected. But still not ideal."

"What do you mean?" Lance couldn't see his face, but Coran seemed oddly tense.

"As expected, most of the superficial wounds are healing nicely. His head injury on the other hand…" He seemed to notice how the words made Lance retreat into his chair. "It is healing up. Not as fast as the rest, but it _is_ healing. Obviously we will not be able to tell just how well until he awakens, but I am certain Shiro will return to us unchanged."

Lance simply nodded into his knees, feeling tears well up again. 

"Will you be here for much longer?" 

The sudden question snapped Lance out of the dark corner his mind was drifting off to. "Uh… yeah, probably. I won't be going to sleep for a while." 

"Then would you mind keeping watch over the bridge for a few ticks? I need to do some maintenance work that I most likely won't get to during the day."

"Sure, I don't mind." 

"It's nothing too complicated," Coran said, already heading for the door. "Simply take a squiz at any incoming signals and if anything happens to be of note, either sound the alarm or document it somewhere. The decision is up to your judgement."

Lance merely nodded, sitting up a bit straighter when Coran walked past him towards the sliding door.

"Oh, and one more thing," standing in the door, Coran waited until Lance met his eyes, "making mistakes is not the end of the world as long as you learn from them." The door slid closed with those words, leaving a dumbfounded Lance.

So he _did_ know _._ Lance felt slightly cheated. He had been somewhat elated thinking Coran didn't know what had happened, but apparently he didn't even have to worry about it in the first place. He should have known Coran at least wouldn't be too upset. Not like… Keith. 

 _"_ You _should have been the one to get hit by that laser blast, not Shiro!"_

Just like the past few sleepless hours, the words echoed endlessly in Lance's head. Why they stung this badly, he wasn't entirely sure. 

Before he could wallow in self-pity any longer, Lance heard a short buzzing noise, a notification popping up on his screen. 

It was a distress signal. 

Eyes widening, Lance carefully typed around on his keyboard until he could see the origin of the distress signal: a planet just a short ride away from the Castle called _Velanos_. 

 _I need to sound the alarm and let the others kno–!_ Lance had jumped into an upright position on his chair, back straight, hands hovering over the keys he knew would activate the alarm, which would send everyone flying out of their beds and into their lions. He was hesitating. 

Slowly, he settled back into his chair. For a moment, he simply sat and finally the sight of stars glimmering back at him comforted him. Very calmly, he closed the notification window that showed the distress signal, but not before noting the exact coordinates of Velanos. 

Determination suddenly glowed in his eyes.

_Keith… I'll show you how useful I am to this team._

* * *

"This was a bad idea." 

Lance said this to himself as he was descending into Velanos' atmosphere. It was already too late to go back and get the others. Even if he went back now and sounded the alarm, until everyone got to Velanos, it could already be too late. If only he could have asked Allura or Coran for more details on this planet. He didn't even know what exactly he was up against here! It didn't seem like a Galra attack, otherwise him or Coran would have seen their ships somewhere nearby from the bridge. So was this some other enemy? Space pirates maybe? Or was this some kind of internal strife? An uprising? Civil war even? The possibilities were endless.

Considering all the possibilities, Lance was growing nervous. But alas, he had brought this mess upon himself, so he had to take responsibility for it. If anything happened to this planet, it would be all on him. This was his chance to redeem himself, so he couldn't come back empty-handed!

Gulping, Lance increased his speed, newfound confidence welling up inside him. Eventually, he could see the surface of the planet, his lion automatically flying towards the exact location the distress signal had come from. At first, he could see nothing but trees. Lush, green jungles seemed to cover the entire planet, broken up only by the occasional body of glistening water. He wasn't even sure he could land anywhere, so he let his lion take over that part, since it knew where it was going. 

Out of nowhere, something hit him from the back. Someone was shooting at him! Turning around, he could see a fighter jet, much like a Galran one, approaching fast. Lance didn't waste a second before shooting back, taking down the lone jet surprisingly easily. Only after he saw its burning debris floating down towards the surface of the planet did he notice how hard he was clenching his controls. He had to force his hands to loosen up before he could move them again. His throat was also oddly dry, making him cough nervously. "So far so good." He gulped, beginning his slow descent to the surface. 

This time he heard the shots before they reached him. He dodged them before they could hit him and was able to estimate their origin and return fire right away. Heart throbbing, he shot down four enemy ships within seconds, watching as they exploded like fireworks, their shimmering remains floating to the ground. He tried not to think of whoever may be inside. Or used to.  

"These guys are pretty weak," Lance noted, eyebrows creased together into a puzzled frown. "They're not Galra, that's for sure." As he searched for a good place to land, a notification popped up on his screen. "A request for communication?" The flashing red pop-up made the paladin gulp nervously, heartbeat noticeably picking up. It was from whoever had sent the distress signal. Normally this sort of task was left to either Allura or Shiro. They were both level-headed and experienced enough with words to be able to have these sort of conversations. Allura, in particular, was adept at this sort of thing, especially with her knowledge of the culture and history of many of these foreign planets. Lance didn't have any of that. And yet he had no other option but to accept the request and hit that big red button.

At first there was static, before the signal quickly levelled out. _"–requesting assistance. May I inquire your identity and purpose?"_

"Confirm. This is Lance, Blue Paladin of Voltron. I received your distress signal and decided to come to your aid."

 _"Voltron?"_ There was a pause in which Lance wasn't quite sure if he should elaborate or not. The response hadn't sounded confused as much as it had sounded stunned. _"Interesting… Then I suppose I should thank you. You come at the right time. We are in a bit of a pickle at the moment, you see."_

Again more of those small fighter jets appeared with no semblance of a tactic or plan. It was relatively easy to take them down, although their numbers seemed to increase with each attack. "Copy. Where exactly are you located?" There was a bit of tinny static again, before the line connected once again.

 _"We have sent you coordinates. Before–"_ The transmission was interrupted, although it didn't sound like the usual static of interference and more like actual commotion happening on the other side. There were some muddled voices talking over each other, but nothing else.

"Hey, come in." No response aside from static. "I'm on my way," Lance sighed, more to himself, since the other side seemed occupied. With the short but stressful exchange over, Lance once again had to refocus and calm his racing heart. He was about to let out another sigh, when suddenly some sort of blast or shock wave reached him, the force of it knocking him a bit off course. It came from the North, where the new coordinates also led to. "No going back," Lance reminded himself once again, before speeding off to where he could see what looked like fire flaring up from the thick jungles. 

After just a few minutes of flying, Lance reached his destination, expression growing tense when he finally got a look at what was happening. An entire fleet of fighter jets was hovering over some sort of city, shooting seemingly at random in what had to be an attempt to utterly wipe out every single person living there. For a moment, Lance was transfixed by the contrast of this pristine, high-tech society surrounded by wild jungles. White skyscrapers, intricate architectures and looping roads, it all seemed too surreal to be true. "Space is so weird, man," Lance mumbled as he descended further, already shooting at a group of jets flitting about. The enemy fleet seemed to notice his presence quite quickly, shifting their focus towards him, dozens of them now all shooting at him.

This time, Lance was noticeably rattled. Having this many ships shoot at him at once was something he couldn't possibly evade entirely. If his teammates were here, they would just split up and separate the fleet into more manageable groups. No one would be faced with more enemies than they could handle and no one had to feel like a punching bag for tiny little jet fighters. But the others weren't here and Lance had to manage on his own.

More often than he liked to admit, Lance was bumped off course by one too many shots hitting him. He would take out six ships, only to have three others shooting at him from another direction. The fact that there was no apparent strategy to this entire assault just made it harder to deal with. There seemed to be no sub-groups among the fleet, no one directing anyone, no structure. He grit his teeth when a particularly unlucky shot hit his lion's head, resulting in Lance being thrown around in his cockpit. He would have flown out of his chair if not for the belt keeping him in place. He forced himself to calm down, to not lose his cool. He didn't want a repetition of what had happened mere hours ago.  

All around him things were exploding, crashing, burning up. It was chaos. He could barely see anything within this ocean of sparks flying and fires burning up the sky. Unbeknownst to him, he drifted off into a state of mental auto-pilot again, letting instinct and the lion itself take over. He stopped thinking. Just reacted. Didn't think of who it even was he was fighting, simply destroyed whoever shot at him. 

He turned into a mindless battle machine.

* * *

To Lance it felt like an eternity, but eventually he couldn't spot a single enemy ship anymore. All he could find was fiery smoke hanging in the sky and burning debris in the thick jungle all around him. Panting, Lance wiped sweat from his neck and decided to finally land. Fortunately, it didn't take long to find a place in the city where he could touch down. There was something like an airport at the edge of the city, other ship-like vehicles already parked in their respective places. Locals were also already gathering, looking ready to welcome him. At least he hoped so. 

Once his lion was standing on solid ground, Lance took a few seconds to calm his racing heart and consider how exactly he was going to go about this. He still wasn't entirely sure what was going on, so finding that out was his first priority. Then he would make sure everything was fine, get some sort of celebration in his honour and lastly, return to the Castle to bask in glory there. "Sounds like a plan." Grinning now, Lance checked the lion's readings once again to make sure this planet's atmosphere wouldn't damage him somehow. The oxygen levels seemed a bit higher than what he was used to, but still breathable. Nodding, he finally exited his cockpit.

As soon as Lance stepped outside, a wall of hot, humid air slapped him in the face like a wet backhand. "Wow, okay, definitely some kinda overheated Tropic Thunder type planet." He quickly spotted the crowd of locals staring back at him from the edge of the hangar. Lance was somewhat lost, until one of them stepped forward and faced him. 

"Greetings!" he said, opening his arms in a sweeping motion. "My name is Cesar and I am the head scientist of this humble city of Persia. I thank you for your assistance and heroic actions in our time of crisis." Cesar, like his fellow Velonians, was freakishly tall, with long limbs and a strange blue tint to his skin. Sharp, amber eyes studied Lance's every move and expression, hinting at an intellectually advanced mind, intimidatingly so. He was dressed in an elegant grey uniform or suit, its light material appropriate for this kind of climate. 

"Yeah, uh… greetings," Lance said, helmet cautiously tucked under his arm. "My name's Lance, Blue Paladin of Voltron. Are you the one I talked to earlier?"

"Yes, that was me. Velonians are not keen on… _violence_ , which unfortunately resulted in quite a predicament for us." 

Glancing back at the other Velonians, Lance noticed some of them giving him what could only be described as dirty looks. "Did… Did I do something… _wrong_?" 

Cesar followed his line of sight, catching sight of the Velonians in question. "Oh, do not mind them," he chuckled humourlessly. "Alpha pride is very vulnerable. They must be upset to have been saved by an omega."

"An omega?" Realisation hit Lance a fraction of a second too late. "Wait, you mean _me_? An omega? What's that?"

Cesar stared back at him with an unreadable expression, before smiling that thin smile of his. "I suppose the concept of secondary genders is not common knowledge among the entire universe. Alas, I should have assumed as much." Again, Cesar glanced at his fellow Velonians, specifically those that looked particularly disgruntled. "Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere more appropriate. I see you still have many questions to ask and I am happy to provide answers to all of them."

"Yeah… sure." This wasn't part of his plan, but it was going fine so far and Lance didn't want to ruin that. He was still getting a weird vibe from this freakishly clean and pristine place, but Cesar seemed like an okay guy, despite talking in such a stilted way. Admittedly, he was a bit strange, but at least he didn't glare at him.  

Lance wasn't entirely sure where they were going and he was cautious of asking questions, very aware of the fact that Cesar was incredibly intelligent. The more questions he asked, the dumber he would seem and the less serious he would be taken. Fortunately for him, Cesar still gave him somewhat of a tour on the way, explaining some basics to him. 

Apparently, Persia was only one of many capital cities across the planet. They were all governed by the same laws, with the planet's government consisting of representatives from all individual capitals. Cesar just so happened to be the representative for Persia, basically making him something like the mayor or president. And actually walking through Persia now, Lance realised how incredibly _giant_ everything was and not just because Velonians were taller. Skyscrapers stretched so far into the sky, Lance couldn't believe he had been able to see them from above just minutes ago. Buildings were structured in such a way that they seemed to defy the laws of physics, their architecture mind-boggling. "Just how big is Persia?" He had been too busy fighting earlier to really get a grasp on the size of the city.

"The total area of Persia spans over 370 of your planet's units. The population is approximately 3.6 million."

"Wow." The smoke from the fighting had obstructed Lance's view more than he had thought. "Doesn't that mean you're super important? Is it okay to give a tour to a uh… tourist?" 

"If that tourist happens to be the saviour of Persia, then of course." 

 _Saviour of Persia._ That had a nice ring to it. Lance couldn't quite suppress a smile. "So what exactly makes this city the capital of the state?"

Again, Cesar eyed him with an unreadable look. Lance wasn't quite sure if it was a Velonian trait or just a quirk of Cesar; to seemingly analyse him for a moment before answering. "The capital of a state is always the place where knowledge is pursued and nurtured the most, meaning the place where the greatest minds have gathered and worked to add to our understanding of the universe. All Velonians strive to become part of this culture of nurture. Well, all betas do, at least."

Before Lance could pursue that line of conversation further, Cesar stopped in front of an incredibly tall archway leading into an opulent hallway flanked by two grim Velonians, both bulkier and taller than anyone Lance had seen so far. 

"Are all preparations finished?" Cesar asked, hands still neatly folded behind his back. The two nodded in unison, not even glancing at Cesar and simply continuing to stare ahead.

Lance followed suit when Cesar gave an approving nod and headed inside. He had grown more relaxed with Cesar giving him more and more information about this planet, its government and its people, but when he passed by the guards, their eyes suddenly snapped to him. They seemed ready to leave their posts just to go after him, taking a step into his direction. Lance's heart seemed ready to jump out of his chest, painfully hammering against his ribcage. He had stopped in his tracks, feeling as though he was facing two blood-thirsty predators, where sudden movements could be his end. 

Almost as suddenly as they had shifted their full attention to him, they snapped back around to their posts, staring ahead again, finally allowing Lance to catch his breath and continue following Cesar.

"Excuse them," the head scientist said, not sounding all that apologetic, but maybe that was just a Velonian thing. No one seemed to genuinely smile. Ever. "Alphas are not used to omegas off their suppressants. As weak as your scent is, I suppose it is very… _pure_. If I had to chance a guess, I would say it tickles their animalistic instincts." 

Lance had to bite down on his own tongue to keep in any snarky replies he was thinking of. If the others were here… If only the others were here, he wouldn't be the sole representative of the defender of the _entire_ universe, Voltron, and he could freely spout out quip after quip, knowing someone was always there to smooth things out if his jokes weren't met with a good reaction. Which, admittedly, was the case more often than not. But he was here to prove to everyone, to _himself_ , that he was more than an overconfident, flirty jokester, that he had a brain and knew how to read situations, that he was perfectly capable of making tactical decisions. "I've wanted to ask for a while, but can you explain that whole omega thing to me? Is it a bad thing?" 

Taking his time answering, Cesar led Lance into what looked like a large ball-room-like hall, tables almost buckling under the weight of all the food placed on them. Well dressed Velonians were casually chatting and sitting in small groups all over the room. The occasional Velonian would spot both Cesar and Lance, inclining their head towards them in a respectful manner, then simply going back to what they were doing. Cesar eventually stopped at a standing table that nearly reached Lance's shoulders. "I hope the food will be to your taste. This was all prepared to show our gratitude for your swift intervention."

"Wait, wow, but wait… I landed half an hour ago!" 

"Omegas work swiftly," Cesar simply commented. "If motivated properly." He quickly noticed the lack of reply, amber eyes meeting Lance's inquiring ones. "It is not a bad thing, being an alpha or omega. Just like us betas, they have their jobs and places in society. We simply… _regulate_ their behaviour more than we do for betas." 

"I still…" Lance didn't think he would ever find himself in a situation where he had to hesitate and pick his words _this_ carefully. "I'm not familiar with your… terminology. Can you maybe explain to me what exactly betas are? And what makes them different from alphas and omegas?"

Again, that pause. That analysing stare. "As an earthling, the concept of _gender_ seems familiar to you, albeit in a very rudimentary form. We simply have a more complex understanding of that concept." Cesar took a small sip of some kind of fizzy liquid, setting it down on the table with a light clang. "Primary gender, male or female, is determined at birth the same way it is for you earthlings. Secondary gender is more complex. It generally manifests during puberty, although it is possible to perform a DNA test after birth as well." He watched Lance taking the information in, eyes never shying away from his. "Now, alphas and omegas have the unfortunate trait of being heavily influenced by pheromones. Every few months, without fail, omegas will go into a period of estrus and lose themselves to their carnal desires and the simplistic need to reproduce and conceive children. And much like omegas, alphas will go into rut, resulting in much the same behaviour. Omegas become entirely incapable of taking care of themselves and alphas will become violent and hot-headed, which is why it is required for them to take suppressants to prevent that sort of unproductive behaviour."

"And all… _that_ … it doesn't happen to betas, I'm guessing," Lance concluded, letting his eyes wander around the room. Suddenly he couldn't shake the feeling that he was entirely surrounded by betas. "I still don't think it's necessary to _force_ everyone to take suppressants. Why do you need to suppress everything so badly?"

"Because alphas and their impulsiveness in particular are a liability. It would be a disgrace to have our society crumble due to the foolishness of our own people, rather than by some sort of foreign entity."

 _Okay, now I'm sure these guys are kinda nuts_. Gulping, Lance tried not to let his trepidation show through. "Then what does that make me? You said I'm an omega."

For some reason, Cesar looked amused. "You are not Velonian, so personally, it is of no importance to me. But since suppressants cannot completely eliminate every type of animalistic behaviour, alphas still react to you. For many of them, it is their first time perceiving the smell of an omega unaffected by years of suppressants. It seems living on Earth has altered your genes and made your secondary gender regress, but your omega traits are still very much perceivable by anyone around you." 

Lance still had questions, particularly about the omegas bearing children part, but whatever he had wanted to ask was interrupted by his helmet beginning to blink. "'Scuse me," he murmured as he left the table and retreated to a corner far away from Cesar. Pulling a tiny headset out of his helmet, he was already preparing himself for a lecture. He took the call, fully expecting Allura or Keith to yell at him, everyone else chiming in to the chorus of Lance's wrongdoings. But that wasn't what happened. "Lance, here…"

_"Where are you?"_

It was Coran. And he sounded upset, voice sharp, quietly seething. It made Lance gulp nervously. "I uh… decided to check out this distress signal and–"

_"Why didn't you sound the alarm?"_

"I-I…" Sighing, Lance began to remember more and more what an awful idea this had been. "I just wanted to…" He heard Coran sigh, the sound distorted through his earpiece.

_"If you come back within the next hour, I won't tell the others about this."_

Biting his lip, Lance glanced to where Cesar was chatting with two other Velonians. "I'm fine. Velanos seems like a peaceful planet, aside from the–"

_"Velanos?!"_

Coran's tone disturbed Lance. Panicked and incredulous, it sent an uncomfortable shiver down Lance's spine. "Yeah, Velanos. Huge green thing, looks like the set of a Tarzan movie."

_"How can you be so calm! Velonians are infamous barbarians who attack whoever invades their territory! Do not, in any case, land anywhere near them!"_

"Um… Coran," Lance had to suppress a chuckle, "that was 10,000 years ago. Things change. _Planets_ change. I'm actually already inside Persia in some kinda celebration in my honour. I saved them! An entire fleet attacked them earlier and that's why they sent the distress signal! I took down every single jet!"

_"Come again?"_

Lance was about to tell Coran more tales of his heroic deeds, if not for the Altean's voice sounding even more apprehensive than before. "What?"

 _"Persia? How…"_ There was a long pause, leaving Lance to wonder if Coran was even still there. _"Persia… of all places…"_

"Coran, what's wrong? What about Persia?"

Another distorted sigh. _"Last I heard, Persia was involved in a full-blown civil war. After years of unrest and strife in every part of the state, everything seemed to simply boil over one day. If I recall correctly, it had to do with their caste system."_

"Caste system?"

_"Sorting people into different classes of varying social standing. An abhorrent thing, to be honest. I can understand why people would revolt."_

"Coran…"

_"Is something wrong?"_

"Do you know what an omega is?"

There was a pause, indicating Coran _did_ know. _"Essentially, they are lower class citizens. On Velanos, at least. No rights or freedom to speak of, their only purpose to serve alphas. They were part of the lowest two classes, where, if they were lucky to be in the higher of the two, they got to be servants or commoners."_

"What about the other class?"

_"I don't think you want to know."_

"Coran…" Lance was shocked at the way his own voice wavered, "they think I'm an omega."

There was a sharp intake of air, before the sound of furious typing could be heard. _"I'm sending the other paladins. Get awa–"_

Listening to the connection slowly cut off, Coran's voice growing more and more distorted, Lance's eyes moved back to Cesar again. 

Their eyes locked. 

_He knows everything._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter will be up next Friday. 
> 
> Any similarities with season 2 and 3 are completely unintentional, by the way. I started writing this a year ago, before season 2 came out, and even though I'm only now finishing up my full draft, I didn't take that much inspiration from season 2, much less season 3. I mention this because every other episode I am freaking out because something I wrote is happening in the show and it's hilarious but also maddening.
> 
> Update: This fic now has art! Starting from chapter 10, I am adding art to each new chapter. All artwork will be up on my tumblr as well, which you can find [here](https://monti-b-lewis.tumblr.com/).


	2. Distress

"Lance is a _what_?" Anger was still almost visibly sizzling under Keith's skin, but confusion was slowly taking over his face. His eyes briefly flicked to where Pidge was typing away at Lance's computer, the screen now showing the coordinates of the planet the Blue Paladin had taken off to by himself. 

"An _omega_ ," Coran repeated. "Strangely, this dynamic of alphas, betas and omegas seems to be universal among many planets, including Earth."

"You mean like… wolf packs?" Hunk asked, expression bewildered and uncertain. "So Lance is safe, right?"

This is where Coran's neutral expression finally wavered. "Not necessarily." A sigh passed his lips, eyes betraying the concern he felt. "Some planets revere their omegas, since they are rare. Others…"

"They what?" Pidge insisted, staring at Coran with a stony look.

"How to put this…" There really was no sugar-coating this. "On many planets they are mere slaves destined to serve and please alphas their entire life. It is quite an archaic system."

" _Please_ them? You mean…" The color drained out of Hunk's face as he pictured what could be happening to Lance at the moment. "We need to get him off that planet, right _now_."

"There is no need to be this hasty," Coran warned. "From what Lance told me, we can assume that he is safe for now. Velanos is relatively peaceful at the moment and they do not seem to treat omegas as slaves. At least not anymore." 

"I still don't understand what this omega thing is about," Keith interjected. "How is Lance an omega if it's not a… _thing_ for humans?"

"I suppose it _does_ exist in humans in a way," Allura mumbled, nervously stroking her arms. "The connection cut off before Lance could go into more detail, but I suppose secondary gender traits exist within the people of Earth, but have regressed far enough over time that they aren't relevant anymore. At least to humans. I'm not entirely sure what will happen, considering Velonians seem to instantly recognise Lance as an omega." 

There was an uncomfortable silence. The paladins were uncertain how to respond, Allura seemed conflicted. 

"Peaceful or not, we need to get Lance," Shiro suddenly spoke up, drawing everyone's attention. Blood was still seeping through the bandages thickly wrapped around his head and he was quite obviously trying to mask his pain, but the determination in his eyes was unwavering. "And we need to hurry."

* * *

Cesar was popular among his people. Or colleagues. Lance wasn't entirely sure how hierarchy among betas worked. Most people treated Cesar like an acquaintance, like the neighbour you are on friendly terms with, but don't know all that well. It vaguely reminded Lance of his relationship with Shiro, albeit theirs was much more intimate. Shiro was his leader, but also a friend and older brother figure, almost father-like.

 _Shiro_ … 

Coran hadn't mentioned him at all, so it was okay to assume he was fine, right? Sighing, Lance went back to watching Cesar. No one else would talk to him anyway. He had decided a while ago that it was no use trying to put up a front when talking to Cesar. Lance got the feeling that the head scientist saw through every lie, every emotion and thought he tried to hide. The more he tried to lie, the more Cesar seemed to zone in on his true motives and feelings.

Thirty minutes into this party of sorts and twenty minutes after talking to Coran, Lance finally caved and decided to drink something. His throat felt painfully dry, so he ended up picking up a glass filled with something clear and fizzy, much like champagne. It smelled strangely sweet, better than anything Coran ever served in the Castle, so it should be fine to drink, right? Standing at his table, drinking his fizzy drink by himself, Lance began to question whether his earlier panic was justified. Nothing bad had happened so far and he had been welcomed with open arms, for the most part. That is, if he ignored those glares and the omega thing. He hadn't seen anyone else labelled an _omega_ so far, no one he could presumably feel more comfortable around. Alphas acted strange around him and betas were just not interested in him at all. It was a bit lonely. 

"So you're our saviour from a faraway planet?" 

Lance jumped a little bit at the voice now suddenly behind him, turning around to see who it belonged to. His eyes fell on two Velonians, one broader and more well built than the other, lankier and taller one. Both were quite handsome; especially considering they were aliens. "I guess so. I'm not exactly second-coming-of-Jesus Neo or anything, but yeah, I shot down those fighters earlier."

The bulky Velonian gave an approving nod. "I'm impressed," he chuckled, his voice low and rumbly. "I hear this party is meant to celebrate the Blue Paladin, but no one seems interested in you. Don't take it to heart. Betas aren't really interested in anyone they can't benefit from." 

"So you're not a beta?" Lance almost wanted to slap a hand over his mouth. He wasn't sure what the social etiquette with this alpha and beta stuff was. What if it was offensive to just ask someone like that?

The Velonian didn't seem to mind, breaking out into loud barks of laughter that seemed to shake his entire rock-hard frame. "No, I'm not." He composed himself rather quickly, swiping a hand over his grey uniform to smooth out non-existent creases. "I'm an alpha and so is my friend here." He motioned towards the taller Velonian, who stood beside him silently with a stoic expression. "That reminds me, we haven't introduced ourselves yet! I'm Baki, Minister of Defence, and the quiet one is Sano, Minister of Justice. You looked lonely, so we decided to provide some company. Can't have you leave with a bad impression of us Velonians, you know."

Instantly, Lance felt more at ease with these guys. Still not entirely comfortable, but he definitely didn't get the impression that they could read his thoughts with just a brief look. "That kinda makes it sound like you're hitting on little ol' me!" Lance laughed, but instantly regretted the remark. Especially when he saw the way Baki's eyes glinted. 

"Wouldn't mind if I do," Baki returned smoothly, taking a sip of his own drink, pointedly eyeing Lance from top to bottom. "Do you even realise what you're doing? It's maddening, to be honest."

"What?" Lance replied dumbly, completely caught off guard. It had been hard enough to adjust to Cesar's probing eyes and stilted way of speaking. Now having someone hit on him so blatantly was too sudden of a shift and he couldn't adjust at all. "I mean… what… are you talking about? What am I doing?"

Baki chuckled under his breath, taking another sip, then swishing his drink around his glass for a moment. "Omegas typically take suppressants from the moment they first present, so the majority of alphas barely know the true scent of an omega. Then you come along, strong and from a distant galaxy, and you practically _reek_ of pheromones, like you _bathed_ in them. It might not affect betas much, but to us alphas it's enough to make us want to jump you. You're just lucky to be in a room with betas and two handsome alphas who happen to be able to control themselves."    

Lance gulped again, this time so loud he was sure the other two heard. "Uh… I'm flattered, I guess." Fidgeting, he laughed, the sound of it oozing nervousness even to his own ears. _Change the subject, dumbass. NOW!_ "How come there's so many betas?" 

Sano suddenly sighed, strangely attracting Baki's full attention. "That's how Velanos works. Betas rule every possible sector, while alphas are second-class citizens who, at most, can dream of becoming security personnel or lowly bodyguards. Nothing more than meat shields. And omegas…"

This finally piqued Lance's interest and he had to suppress the excitement in his own voice. "What about them?"

For a moment, Sano seemed to regard Lance with something like pity. "They're servants, to put it bluntly. They cook, clean and take care of children. There are some omegas who are fortunate, who get to become teachers or nurses. The less fortunate ones…" Something unreadable briefly flashed across Sano's eyes, before he went silent again. It was immediately clear that he wouldn't talk anymore. 

"Don't let him scare you." Baki was grinning, softly patting Sano's shoulder, before meeting Lance's eyes again. "You're special, so nothing will happen to you. As long as you stick to the right people, that is."

"And by _right people_ , you mean _you_ , right?" Lance had a feeling that he didn't have to sugarcoat things and be diplomatic with Baki. It was a relief.

"You catch on quickly, Saviour of Persia." Baki looked beyond pleased, elated almost. "Give and take. I suppose you're familiar with that concept. I help you out and you help me out. Catch my drift?" The question was accompanied by a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrow, making it _very_ clear what his drift was. 

Lance had to stop himself from gulping yet again, instead opting to simply fidget for a moment. "Why would I need your help? My team is on their way to pick me up. They'll be here pretty soon."

"Now _that's_ where you're wrong." Baki was still grinning, but there was somewhat of a sinister nature to his smile now. "Do you really think Cesar is gonna let you go? Just like that? Without _researching_ you? Without sampling you and, if you're _really_ unlucky, dissecting you? He's already made his mind up about what to do with you and nothing's gonna stop him."

Lance was speechless, to say the least. Apparently, he really had walked into the biggest fucking trap ever. He should have known. Cesar was too nice, too forthcoming, especially considering his position. Saviour or not, Lance was still a mere stranger. There was no reason to trust him this much. 

As though he had noticed the shift in Lance's attitude, Cesar's eyes suddenly focused on the paladin from the other side of the room, sharp and imploring. He looked unperturbed, for the most part, continuing to chat with people. Yet his eyes seemed to always wander towards Lance, keeping tabs on him, _watching_ him. Like a hawk would eye a mouse.

"I'm in," Lance suddenly murmured, almost too quietly to hear.

"What was that?" Baki asked, clearly having heard the words, a grin spreading on his square features. 

"I said I'm in." Making an effort to straighten up and look less terrified, Lance met Baki's amused eyes with a determined glare. "It's not like I trust you either, but between you and Cesar, you're probably the lesser evil."

Baki grinned at that, not looking in the least offended. "Well said." Setting down his glass on a nearby table, he approached Lance further, casually invading his personal space and smirking when the paladin backed away slightly. "Now, how about we take this to a quieter place?"

* * *

When Lance had woken up in the morning, he couldn't have expected to end up in an alien's lap a day later. Getting shot by enemy ships? Sure! Being a dumbass and putting his team in danger? Totally unlikely, but a possibility. Having a blue alien sniff his neck and _growling_? Nope, not really. 

Lance could _feel_ the red shooting into his face. Being a self-proclaimed ladies' man, he considered himself to be anything _but_ bashful, but this was an entirely different story. He had never, in his entire life, had someone be _this_ invested in him and his body. Baki was practically drinking Lance up as though he had been parched and dehydrated his entire life, running a decidedly purple tongue over the sliver of skin on Lance's neck that his paladin armour left uncovered. It sent a weird tickle all over his skin, into every nerve ending of his body, especially when Baki's hot breath hit the now wet patch. 

"Is the room to your liking?" Baki suddenly whispered huskily, pulling away. 

It took Lance a few seconds to process the question and meet Baki's intense amber gaze. "Uh… um… yeah. Can't really complain." Honestly, if he could, Lance would bring girls to a room like this too. A large, ceiling high window let daylight stream in freely, breaking up the semi-darkness that seemed to otherwise seep through the entire room. Rich purple upholstery covered the various pieces of furniture, every surface was polished and impeccably clean and strange alien plants in pots served as minimal decoration. It seemed to function as both a comfortable living room and an office and to Lance's relief, didn't give off the type of brothel atmosphere he had been expecting. Somehow it made him trust Baki more, despite the alarm bells in his head still ringing incessantly. "It's pretty straightforward to invite a stranger into your own office for a necking session. If that's your idea of foreplay, I'm not complaining."

Baki chuckled at that, obviously not fooled by Lance's attempt to appear nonchalant. "Am I correct in assuming that you're a virgin and that no one has ever touched you like this before?" To go along with his words, Baki ran a hand over Lance's lower back, where nothing but thin high-tech alien fabric covered his skin. 

Lance couldn't suppress the violent jerk of his body or the shiver running over his entire back and into his fingertips, even into the ends of his hair. It was strange enough to be sitting like this in a literal love chair; now Lance had to discuss his sex life. With an _alien_. "When it comes to guys, at least. I've definitely never had a guy feeling me up like this." He chuckled nervously, sounding terrified and slightly hysterical even to himself. "Be gentle." Lance wanted to face-palm. _Great going, Lance! Why don't you just mount him right away!_

"Would you mind taking off your armour?" Baki purred, voice deep, rumbling through Lance's chest. "It's covering your neck."

"My neck?"

Baki seemed distracted by that very neck for a moment, looking as though he was mapping every inch of it with his amber eyes. "Human anatomy seems a bit different, but generally, you have scent glands in similar places as we do. So your scent is strongest around your neck."

It was a bit disturbing to Lance how Baki wasn't even really talking to his face anymore and more to his neck. "I… guess it's fine." With some hesitation, he pulled off his arm pieces, followed by his cuirass, all while Baki simply watched him with hungry eyes. Lance was left with his belt and the armour pieces on his legs, his upper body only protected by the thin black suit underneath. He had to stop himself from wrapping his arms around himself in an attempt to hide. 

"That looks pretty tight."

Lance gulped. He didn't even dare say anything in response. But even without his reply, Baki went ahead and began nipping at his neck again. It was sensitive now, resulting in little tingles running all over Lance's spine whenever he could feel the Velonian's teeth press into his skin. Lance jumped when Baki's hand suddenly ran over his back, over the zipper of his black suit. The sound of it being pulled down slowly sounded obnoxious to his own ears, loud and distorted. 

"Breathe."

The growled whisper made Lance realise that yes, he had actually forgotten to breathe. Heart beating wildly, ears burning, Lance could feel Baki's mouth shifting lower and lower, towards his shoulder, slowly leaving more and more marks. How would he explain those to his team?

After only a few seconds of this, Baki finally leaned away, settling back into the love chair. "You're nervous."

It wasn't so much a simple remark as it was almost an accusation. This entire time, Lance had been trying to keep up this image of a powerful and confident paladin, but it crumbled in front of someone like Baki. "Why do you care?"

"Because I want you to come to me on your own," Baki replied calmly, smirking. "Taking by force sucks the fun out of hunting. I didn't get to where I am now by following my alpha instincts and I'm not going to start now." 

This made Lance think… He had an out here; Baki was giving him options. Leave and risk possibly getting assaulted for supposedly being an omega, or accept the deal and be guaranteed safety or some type of favour. Lance wasn't too concerned with his safety. What he was worried about was his team, them arriving here and encountering Cesar. There really was no telling what would happen and Lance couldn't shake this ominous feeling. He hadn't been able to contact anyone in the Castle since his call with Coran, which just served to make him even more uneasy. If adventuring with Hunk had taught him anything, it was that he should always trust his gut feeling, _especially_ if it was bad. 

"Can I leave?" he eventually asked, avoiding Baki's eyes.

"Of course."

"You're not gonna… keep me here?"

"Like I said, there's no fun in just taking. It's more fun to have your prey come to you willingly." 

The words gave Lance reason to pause. Baki really didn't seem like he would force him into anything. Obviously, this could all be some kind of elaborate manipulation tactic, but for now, Lance had to take whatever he could get. "You'll help me?"

Baki smirked, eyes glinting. "As long as you hold up your end of the bargain."

After a pause, Lanced nodded wordlessly, sealing his fate, before getting off of the Velonian's lap. He didn't even notice Baki's intrigued gaze following his every movement as he kneeled down on the floor in front of him. His heart had stopped racing, instead beating evenly, hard and almost painfully. The Blue Paladin's fingers glided over the grey material of Baki's uniform, along the muscles of his leg, up to his crotch. 

_I guess I should say bye to being straight._

* * *

"Shiro, I know you _feel_ fine, but you aren't." Coran had been buzzing around Shiro for a while now, seemingly waiting for the inevitable moment in which the Voltron leader would just keel over and die. Even as he put on his paladin helmet, Coran seemed to be bouncing all over the hangar walls. "I only took you out of the pod to check up on you quickly, not for you to walk around already. You should be staying in there for another ten vargas at least! You still look completely clobbered!"

"It's fine," Shiro insisted. "I've had worse." He wasn't lying. He couldn't fully recall what had happened in his time of captivity with the Galra, but what he could clearly remember was the feeling of utter despair and helplessness, not to mention the pain. This was nothing compared to that.

"You said you had a plan," Keith cut in, stopping Coran from fussing yet again. He briefly adjusted his left bracer, eyes never leaving Shiro's. "And that we need to hurry."

"Yeah…" Shiro seemed uneasy for a moment, before putting on the face of the leader everyone knew. "We have three different options: plan A is to check the situation out and get Lance. Quick and easy. This would be the ideal way for things to go. If that doesn't work out for any reason, we go over to plan B, which is to seek out negotiations with their head scientist, who seems to function as Persia's mayor of sorts. Velonians seem like civilised folk, so we might be able to work something out. If even that doesn't work out, plan C is to take Lance back by force. We have the lions on our side and apparently Velanos is in no position to defend itself, so that's why violence is only our last resort. We can't formulate plans beyond that until we're actually in Persia, so we'll have to adjust as things unfold."

The other paladins voiced their agreement with the plan, while both Allura and Coran remained silent, Allura in particular looking conflicted. 

"Anything wrong, princess?" Shiro inquired, knowing already that Allura knew something they didn't.

As suspected, Allura sighed, her worried expression only intensifying. "This could turn into an incredible mess," she said, Coran looking tense next to her. "Velanos is nearly as old as Altea, yet our kingdoms never got along. Velanos has always been very… _extreme_. Even Father used to always clash with their king."

"King?" Hunk chimed in. "Isn't Velonas' government technocratic? Seeing how their leaders are whoever is smartest."

"It is now," Allura replied. "It used to be a monarchic kingdom much like Altea. Father used to worry that they would ally with the Galra, considering their ferocious nature, but apparently they clashed with Zarkon even more than with us. Even my gentle father used to complain about their inflated sense of ego and pride." For a moment, Allura seemed absorbed by the thought of her father, but she quickly snapped back to reality. "They would have been powerful allies in any fight, but negotiations always fell through. Our ideals were simply too different and it was impossible to compromise with them." 

"What does that mean for our situation right now?" Hunk asked, already looking unsettled. "Are you saying that they won't just give us Lance back for some reason?"

Allura hesitated, momentarily wringing her hands. "Him being an omega seems like it could be a problem. I don't know enough about today's Velonians to be sure, but I doubt they will treat him like a paladin of Voltron." She knew the question that would follow before anyone voiced it. "They will treat him like an omega." 

* * *

Lance watched the door close, feeling conflicted. On one hand, he felt almost proud of himself for handling the situation relatively well overall. On the other, he wondered if he really should have trusted Baki at all. He didn't regret his choice though, just wished he had sounded the Castle alarm when he had first seen that distress signal pop up. For a while, Lance simply laid sprawled over the couch, legs hanging over the edges. Staring up at the ceiling, he noticed that he could still taste Baki on his tongue. It didn't bother him as much as he thought it would. _Okay, so I'm not as straight as I thought._  

A sudden knock nearly made Lance slip off the couch, before he regained his balance and sat down properly. "Yes?"

The door opened to reveal a mousy-looking Velonian only slightly shorter than Lance. Wearing a flowy robe made of that same grey material, she carefully entered the room with a tray of food. "I was told to bring you food. Hopefully it's to your liking."

Lance noticed her hands shaking when she put down he tray on the table in front of him. "Thank you." He also heard the way her stomach gurgled when she was about turn to leave. "Wanna join me?" he chuckled, suppressing the barks of laughter that wanted to burst from his chest. The poor girl looked horrified enough already.

"N-No, I couldn't possibly…" She fidgeted with her hands nervously, eyes flitting around the entire room. "I'm just an omega. I shouldn't–"

"I'm an omega too though," Lance interrupted her, already inspecting the food. It looked edible enough. "Nothing wrong with that."

The shy Velonian seemed to debate with herself, eyes wandering to the food. When her stomach growled yet again, she flinched, before abruptly sitting down next to Lance, taking something bread-like from the tray and shoving it in her mouth greedily.

It took Lance slightly by surprise, but eventually he smiled as he watched her eat. He tried some of the strangely shaped fruits and berries, mostly satisfied watching the little Velonian eat. Despite her height, she seemed young, _much_ younger than anyone Lance had met so far. She looked to be his little cousin's age. "What's your name?"

The Velonian seemed to snap out of it, finally realising how she had been practically eating the entire tray clean. She apologised quietly, head bowed, before continuing to eat; much slower this time. "Sona."

There was a certain fondness in Lance's eyes when he looked at her. "I'm Lance."

"I know," Sona immediately replied, nibbling on an apple-like fruit. "Word travels fast. You saved us, didn't you?"

"I guess I did." Still, Lance couldn't help but feel pride whenever his heroic deeds were brought up. "I–"

_"Sona!"_

Lance jumped at the sudden yell, suddenly terrified of whoever was outside. When he glanced to his side, he could see all colour drain from Sona's face. "Hey, So–"

"I need to go." 

Without another word, Sona stiffly stood up and rushed towards the door, prompting Lance to jump up as well. "Hey, wait!"

As soon as Sona opened the door, a tall female Velonian roughly grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her away. Sona was barely able to keep up with her pace, stumbling over her own feet. 

"You useless little girl," the tall Velonian angrily mumbled to herself, not even sparing Lance a single glance. "You're completely disrupting the order of things! And especially _now_ that you're headed for reassignment! You just _had_ to be a nuisance on your last day, didn't you?"

"HEY!" Lance was bristling with anger by the time the Velonian finally turned to him, stopping in her tracks.

"What is it?" she hissed, never letting go of Sona's wrist. It looked tiny and frail in her large hands.

 _Be cool, Lance. You need to at least pretend you're super powerful even without your lion._ "Let her go." _Wow, real intimidating, man._

"Why should I, Blue Paladin?" The Velonian's eyes were burning with challenge, _daring_ Lance to argue with her. "Don't assume that defeating a few measly little Orak with their puny ships is going to earn you any privileges."

 _Shit_. Lance hadn't expected her to know who he was. He thought everyone was supposed to be nice to him, Lance being their saviour and all. "I still need her for something."

"Relationships of any nature between omegas are illegal, _paladin_ , don't even _think_ about it." The Velonian simply left then, dragging a quiet Sona with her.

Lance wanted to yell, run after them and take Sona by force, but he knew that would just trouble the girl even more. That she was even in this mess to begin with was his fault. If not for him urging her to stay, this wouldn't be happening. "Shit…" 

It didn't take Lance long to decide what to do. 

He rushed back to Baki's room, pulled his discarded armour pieces back on, then quickly dashed back out again. He could still hear the Velonian loudly dragging away Sona and tried to follow the two inconspicuously. Whenever he passed by anybody else, he simply pretended to be talking a walk, helmet tucked under his arm, glancing around the hallways in an attempt to look curious but also busy. It worked and people mostly avoided him or stared from a distance. Eventually, he followed the two to a door leading down a dark staircase, causing the Blue Paladin to stop in his tracks for a moment. Lance wasn't afraid of the darkness or anything. He just preferred being in light.

"Okay," Lance sighed, catching the door before it could fall shut and quietly slipping in when no one was looking. Immediately, he felt colder. The walls were made of some kind of smooth metal and a draft was lightly blowing around his face as he descended the stairs. He could still hear the Velonian ranting at Sona, a scowl forming on his face. The deeper in he went, the more he could hear the occasional sound of metal clinking. Eventually, the stairs ended and the area opened up, revealing a box-like room. Lance rushed towards where he could hear Sona being dragged around, walking into an even bigger room. 

Lance came to an abrupt stop as soon as he saw what was inside. 

"What is this?"

* * *

Several hours later, Team Voltron were sitting opposite of Persia's leader and a few other government officials, trying their hardest to negotiate somehow. It wasn't going well.

"What do you _mean_ we can't see him?" Keith looked just about ready to clock the Velonian in the jaw, fingers digging into his own crossed arms, anger visibly swirling in his every fibre. 

Shiro had to not so subtly throw a _look_ at the Red Paladin to make him back down, using all his dad-like authority to silence Keith. Once Keith forced himself to relax, Shiro quietly cleared his throat, before addressing the Velonian, Cesar, on the other side of the table again. "You said there was a reason we can't see Lance right away?" 

"Indeed," the head scientist said, expression neutral. "To put it simply, he has disappeared." 

Allura seemed ready to argue with the Velonian, but held back. She herself had decided not to participate in negotiations after all, seeing how she and Coran, being Alteans, weren't exactly well regarded by the Velonians. 

"He was staying in this very building until just recently," Cesar explained flatly, "but as of approximately two hours ago, he has up and disappeared. No one has seen him, otherwise I assure you I would have brought him to you immediately." Before Shiro could even say anything further, another Velonian stepped up to Cesar's side and whispered something to him. Whatever it was, it made Cesar look slightly less apathetic. "Now if you will excuse me, there are some matters that need attending to. Of course, I will let you know once we find the Blue Paladin." 

He simply left like that, leaving Team Voltron completely clueless as to what to do. At least most of them. When Keith suddenly got out of his seat, the rest of the team expected him to walk up to Cesar and throw punches, which is why Hunk held him back.

"Dude, what're you trying to do?" he asked, brown eyes wide with trepidation.

Keith looked genuinely surprised and not nearly as angry as expected. "What? Didn't any of you notice that guy trying to talk to us?"

Everyone looked towards where Keith was motioning and found a bulky Velonian in a far corner, behind the many other ones keeping a polite distance, yet still inspecting them from afar like they were some kind of spectacle. 

"Aren't we gonna talk to him?" Keith pulled his arm out of Hunk's now loose grip, directing his whispered question specifically at Shiro and Allura. "It's not like we have that many options here."

"I noticed him signalling us to follow him, but…" Allura finally stepped away from the wall she had been standing against, arms crossed and expression guarded, "I'm not sure he's going to simply help us out of the goodness of his heart." 

"It can't hurt to at least listen to what he has to say," Shiro argued. "Like Keith said, there's not much else we can do." 

Allura eventually sighed and simply nodded, prompting the team to leave the room. They walked down a hallway that seemed relatively empty, waiting there for whoever had wanted to talk to them. It took a few minutes, but eventually the Velonian in question joined them.

"Minister of Defence, Baki," he introduced himself. "I understand you're trying to find Lance?"

The team immediately perked up at the very personal way of address, eyeing the Velonian with both suspicion and hope.

"Yes," Shiro replied, not lacking in authority despite Baki somewhat dwarfing him in height. "Can you help us in any way?"  

With a sigh, Baki shook his head. "Not really, unfortunately. Lance was with me last before he disappeared, so I'm guessing he must have wandered off for some reason. I don't know him well enough to know why exactly."

"Why was he with you?" Keith suddenly questioned, eyes sharp. 

Baki seemed to notice the poison in those words and carefully sized Keith up. "I offered him my help in return for a favour, that's all. It's more of a business relationship than anything."

Again, Keith kept poking. "What kind of favour?" 

Both Allura and Shiro looked like they wanted to stop Keith, but at the same time, these questions needed to be answered.

In response, a smirk slowly appeared on Baki's face. "What happens behind the doors of my office, stays behind those doors, sorry." 

Before Keith could continue digging, Shiro cut him off. "So you're the Minister of Defence? Can you tell us more about that distress signal and the attack earlier?"

Baki suddenly released another sigh, folding his hands behind his back. "I _am_ the Minister of Defence, but I'm nothing but a figurehead. I can't tell you much about that attack." Something unreadable flashed across his features, before dissipating again almost instantly. "As an alpha, my only purpose in this high-ranking position is to appease any alphas that would turn rebellious if they were ruled entirely by betas. The reason we needed help as soon as we got attacked is that we technically don't have a proper military, just a private guard force commanded by a few high-ranking officials. As such, there really isn't much for a Minister of Defence to do besides simple paper work."

"You don't seem bothered by that," Allura suddenly remarked sharply, expression passive and not betraying a single emotion.

Baki smirked, seeming intrigued by the Altean princess. "I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me at all. But at the same time, my being a mere figurehead doesn't change how much I've worked to get into my current position. All I've ever wanted was an easy lifestyle. If that means deceiving my own kind to keep the system going, then so be it." 

"So it doesn't matter to you that you are essentially aiding the oppression of your own people?"  

The question left Baki speechless for only a second, his expression turning more amused again. "Humans and Alteans seem like a very compassionate bunch, so you're probably expecting some kind of noble purpose from me. Something that justifies my actions." For the first time since meeting Baki, the Velonian finally seemed to show his true nature, the stern and serious man that he was beneath his carefree attitude. "I don't have anything like that. I just want an easy life and I don't care who I have to step over to achieve that."

Suddenly, the team all understood why Lance had agreed to Baki's terms and why he had trusted him. He was callous and shady, but at least he had pride and somewhat truthfully voiced his thoughts and opinions. It was easy to trust him, insensitive as he was. 

"What I _do_ have is an information network that stretches over several states," Baki continued. "Should Lance ever leave this city, I will know. And if we wait long enough, he will eventually turn up somewhere I can locate him." 

"He doesn't have that kind of time though, does he?" Pidge suddenly threw in, looking more than just a little suspicious. "Velanos doesn't seem like the type of planet that would just welcome people like us, especially if they're a so-called _omega_ like Lance."

Baki didn't seem bothered in the least by the hostile tone. Pidge, like Allura, seemed to pique his interest. "It's true. Lance doesn't have much time. If he's going around by himself without taking any suppressants, it's only a matter of time before something unfortunate happens. You're free to explore Persia and search for him, but I doubt you'll find him in time. Unless he comes back here on his own, there's not much that can be done."     

Allura clenched her fists, directing an icy glare at the Velonian minister. "So you are just going to stay here and wait while Lance is in danger? Despite whatever deal you two have in place?"

"I'm not that kind of person," Baki immediately clarified. "I'm going to hold up my end of the deal, seeing how he has already fulfilled his part in it. But I won't make promises I can't keep. Persia has its dark sides and if Lance wanders into the more sinister parts of it, I doubt even _I_ will be able to help him." With those words, Baki gave them a slight bow. "Hopefully you will be able to find him. I wish you luck." He left abruptly, leaving a still clueless Team Voltron.

For a few seconds, there was silence. Everyone was trying to process this new information, trying to come up with some kind of solution. Eventually, it was Hunk that broke the silence.

"Where do we even start?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was very dialogue-heavy, but I promise the next one will be more action-y again. It'll be up next Friday.
> 
> Thanks for all the kudos and great comments, by the way! It's great to finally get feedback after such a long time of working on this thing.


	3. Fear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick trigger warning: this chapter has some descriptions of attempted rape, so if you don't feel comfortable reading that, just skip everything between the two words I underlined for both instances.

Round, incredibly dark eyes fearfully stared back at Lance. For a moment, the paladin was transfixed by the sight of the Velonian, unable to really identify a specific gender at first glance: pale skin for a Velonian, messily chopped hair, spindly arms covered in winding tattoos that were surrounded by angry red skin. Apparently, these tattoos were new and to Lance, they looked entirely foreign on this timid Velonian. 

The fear didn't lessen even after some time had passed and although it seemed redundant to Lance, he felt the need to say it anyway. "I'm an omega too. There's no reason to be afraid." 

The Velonian finally stirred and moved slightly closer, arms lowering where they had been held up protectively. "Please go. Leave me alone."

Lance's friendly smile fell almost instantly. The words stung more than he had expected. "But–"

" _Please_ ," the Velonian hissed. "If they see me talking to someone, I'll be punished. Just leave, I _beg_ you." 

Clenching his jaw, Lance was rooted in place for only a second, before he quickly shot up and turned to leave. "I'll help you. Just wait." _If Shiro was here…_

If Shiro was here, Lance wouldn't be so useless. He wasn't stupid, but he still lacked the brains to come up with strategies for situations like this; yet he was smart enough to realise that stubbornly trying to save someone by force would only hurt them more. The way things had gone down with Sona earlier had taught him that. Velanos had problems that wouldn't go away just by saving one person. Still, he couldn't leave Sona alone. 

As Lance walked further in, towards the direction he had last heard Sona being dragged to, he found more and more prison-like cells. Inside were Velonians of various sizes and genders, all shackled like animals and with strange modifications to their bodies. They all looked like they had gone through some kind of forced makeover, hair strangely coloured, bodies sometimes tattooed or pierced. With some of them Lance didn't dare to look for longer than a moment. Whenever he thought someone looked strangely contorted or like their bodies were taking up too little space even in those tiny cells, he would avert his eyes. Bile was already rising up his throat. 

"Stay in here. The next reassignment is in a few hours."

It was the voice of the tall Velonian Lance had been chasing this entire time. A shiver ran down his spine hearing her anger-tinged voice again. 

"You're lucky you're pretty, otherwise no one but those crazy fetishists would want you."

Lance jumped a little at the harsh sound of a metal door being slammed shut, keys clinking as it was locked. There was some inaudible angry mumbling and Lance had the presence of mind to find a hiding place, before the familiar tall Velonian came back towards where he was. He pressed himself into a dark corner next to a few crates, just as the Velonian in question walked by, a scowl seeming etched into her frigid features. His heart inevitably began racing, only calming down once the click-clack of her shoes faded into silence. Lance spent only a few seconds listening for other people walking around, before dashing out. The room he ended up in was filled up, yet again, with more cages. All of them were empty, safe for one.

"Sona!" Lance almost collapsed in front of the girl's cage, falling to his knees, hands wrapped around the bars encaging her. "Are you okay?"

"Lance?" Sona looked legitimately confused, looking to have trouble processing the sight of the paladin. "Why are you here?" 

"To help you, of course!" The suspicion and fear in Sona's face almost physically hurt Lance, but he tried maintaining a calm expression, continuing to speak in a low voice. "What's going on here? Why are you all in cages?"

More than anything, Sona looked disturbed. Now more than ever, Lance seemed to look like an alien creature to her. "For reassignment," she mumbled. "I wasn't doing well at my job as a maid, so I dropped in rank. Now I'm being reassigned to a job more… appropriate for my rank."

"Rank?" 

Sona obviously didn't understand Lance's curiosity. "I was a 110 before. I'd finally worked up to that after half a year of working here. But I also messed up a lot and when our supervisor changed, I dropped to a 95. When you drop below 100, you can't work in domestic service anymore."

Lance was suddenly reminded of Sano's words, spoken with a hint of anger. "What rank are betas usually?" 

Again, Sona hesitated to answer, looking perplexed at Lance's curiosity. "Around 2500 and up."  

Lance didn't want to ask. Sona was a nice girl, albeit a bit clumsy. If 110 was all she could work up to after months of hard work, then that meant betas were most likely granted a much higher rank from birth. They probably received better education, more job opportunities, better lifestyles. All because of some kind of secondary gender. "Can I help you somehow?" he suddenly asked. "I feel guilty for getting you into this situation." 

"This has nothing to do with you," Sona insisted resolutely. "I was already scheduled for reassignment. You talking to me didn't change that in any way."  

"Don't you want to get out at all?"

Sona's expression suddenly grew pinched, pain swimming in her watery eyes. She was still a child after all. Even if she tried, she couldn't possibly mask her emotions completely.

"Let me help."

* * *

Keith was quietly seething in his cockpit in the Red Lion. Ever since Lance had messed up and gotten Shiro hurt, he had been perpetually angry. Almost an entire day had passed and _still_ he was furious. First because of Lance's fuck-up, then because of their fight, after that Lance just _had_ to go on an impromptu solo mission and now the entire team was on a foreign planet with no way to find him. _And_ they had been dragged into some kind of war between races. 

 _"I don't understand."_ Allura's voice was heavily distorted through the radio.

Something was jamming their signal, making it difficult just to communicate between each other, much less contact Lance. It was suspicious that Coran had been able to talk to him for a few minutes without trouble, only to then suddenly be completely unable to connect with him. It didn't bode well for Lance's safety. 

 _"The Orak are perfectly peaceful beings with relatively primitive lifestyles,"_ Allura explained, the emotion lacing her voice unintelligible through the distortion _. "Why would they attack Velanos? And where did they get all these weapons from?"_ She paused for a moment, most likely in deep thought. _"What is the Oraks' goal in all this? They used to live peacefully, as Velanos' neighbours, and nothing more. Why would they turn on them like this?"_

Keith couldn't suppress a silent sigh. He honestly couldn't care less about why exactly these aliens were fighting. Their priority was retrieving Lance, but by the looks of it, they would be tasked with saving yet another planet from itself. _How do we always end up in these messes?_  

The conversation abruptly cut off when another swarm of fighters came whizzing by and shot at them. They didn't stand a chance against four lions of Voltron, all going down in barely a minute. 

"How did we even end up in this fight?" Keith ranted once the sky was free of enemies again. "Weren't we going to look for Lance? We don't have a lot of time, remember?"

 _"Protecting innocent citizens takes priority,"_ Shiro argued, voice even. _"Lance knows how to protect himself, don't worry."_

"I'm not _worried_." Keith said this knowing it was a lie. As stubborn as he was, he had to admit that things really didn't look good for Lance. He would be surprised if things simply went well and Lance returned to them unharmed. By this point, he couldn't fathom that outcome anymore. 

Before Keith could linger on the thought any longer, another wave of enemies came flying, raining fire down on the lions. There wasn't much time to worry about Lance.

* * *

Laying down the last piece of his armour, Lance checked again to see if everything was in place. His space suit was folded as neatly as he could manage and all his armour pieces were hidden in one of Baki's wardrobes. The Velonian still hadn't returned, even now that the sun was going down, causing Lance to grow a bit anxious. Glancing down at his new attire, he sighed. Part of it was a dark grey shirt without sleeves. It fell off his thin frame with almost every movement, especially since it was meant for a much taller Velonian to wear. The pants to go along with the shirt were equally thin and boring-looking, barely hanging on to his slender hips. He felt almost naked. Unprotected. 

Before their little necking session, Baki had ordered clothes for him; clothes which a servant had then brought only fifteen minutes later. Now there was a pile of clothes in various shades of grey or navy blue, sometimes black, just sitting on a chair. Lance felt slightly apologetic for pulling out the least flashy thing from the pile: a parker-like garment made of a soft black material. It looked brand new, the unmistakable smell of a factory still lingering on it. Putting it on, he breathed a sigh of relief when it mostly covered up his very human physique. It made for a decent disguise when he pulled the hood over his head. Once he slipped into a pair of boots, he was technically ready to go, yet he hesitated at the door leading out to the hallway. It was late enough that not many people were still wandering around, meaning he should be able to sneak around unnoticed. So why couldn't he get himself to push down this door handle and leave?

_Am I doing the right thing?_

Sona's shaky smile flashed across his mind and suddenly he was brusquely walking down the hallway. He gulped nervously, recalling the plan he had haphazardly scrambled together only minutes earlier. "I got the clothes…" he mumbled, "so now I just need to get out master ninja style. Be one with the shadows, Lance. Blend into the nigh–"

"Oh…"

A door had opened and suddenly Lance was standing face to face with one of the older maids. He simply nodded at her in greeting, not even waiting for some kind of response back before power-walking away again. "Blend in with the people, Lance. Don't be suspicious." 

It took nearly twenty minutes of somewhat aimless wandering and power-walking before Lance finally found the exit. He only ran into two other people on his way and both times he was able to mostly evade them. He let out a sharp sigh when he exited the building and was instantly met with cold, biting afternoon air, the sky a strange neon green. Moments like these reminded him just how far away from home he was. The air felt so familiar, but the moment he looked up, it was instantly clear just how foreign and _different_ this place was. 

Pulling his hood further down into his face, Lance made his way towards the streets. They were relatively empty, looking almost abandoned. Apparently no one went out once the sun began going down – something to do with Velonian's body temperature not being able to adjust to the drastic drop in temperature. Lance definitely could see why, considering he had felt like he was entering a sauna when he had initially landed his lion, while now there was a very crisp, cold breeze wafting past his face just hours later. He pulled his coat closer around himself, hunching his shoulders in an attempt to keep in more warmth. He then stopped in his tracks for a moment, taking in the city laid out before him. The city hall building he had just left overlooked the other parts of Persia, the ministers and officials residing inside like Greek gods sitting in their Pantheon. 

"Now where's that office?" Thanks to Sona's intel, Lance didn't have to search long. Right next to a few floaty car-like vehicles was a small building, almost hidden from view between a group of purple-leafed trees. Already he could see someone sitting inside through a window. For the umpteenth time that day, Lance gulped. As he approached the office, he had to will away his shakiness, nervously worrying his lower lip. Hand on the doorknob, he began to chant. _Please be an alpha, please be an alpha, please be an alpha, please be an alpha, please!_

The door swung open and the Velonian inside glanced at Lance curiously. "Can I help yo–" He froze. 

 _An alpha_. "Uh… hi!" Laughing nervously, Lance uncertainly entered, walking stiffly. "I'm… kinda bored. My um… escort from city hall hasn't been back in hours and I'm feeling a bit ah…" Amber eyes were burning into his, " _hot_." 

It happened in a flash, seemingly within the blink of an eye. One moment the Velonian was sitting at his desk, the next he was suddenly pushing Lance up against a wall, completely surrounding him with the sheer mass of his body. His face was already buried in Lance's neck, teeth nipping at the paladin's skin.

"Omega," he murmured, a deep growl rumbling up from his chest.

"Yeah, hi, name's _Lance_!"

" _Omega_."

"O-Okay…" Face flushed up to his ears, Lance could feel his skin tingling, feet seemingly rooted in place. Once he could feel a tongue lapping at his neck, he managed to push the Velonian away a few inches, hands on the alpha's bulky chest. "M-Mind doing me a small favour before we do anything?"

"Fa…vour?"

The once clear-minded Velonian was now nothing but a listless mess, eyes heated yet unfocused. It terrified Lance. "You manage transport routes for most vehicles coming in and out here, right?" It took a moment, but eventually the alpha nodded. "Tell me where the next reassignment of staff is going to." The alpha didn't seem to understand. "I…" Lance had to take a deep breath, willing his heart to calm down and stop knocking so hard against his ribcage, "I'll do whatever you want… if you help me." 

That seemed to finally get through to the Velonian. He was off Lance and back at his desk within seconds, sifting through documents and files on his computer with lightning speed, proving that he wasn't just some kind of mush-brained brute. Based on Baki's story, this guy too probably had worked incredibly hard to not end up as a mere guard, yet he was still stuck in this kind of dingy office. 

Before Lance had the chance to think further on the matter, the alpha returned to him. He didn't seem to understand the concept of personal space, walking up to him like he was going to drown him in his body. Lance could feel the alpha's hot breath hitting his forehead. 

"East Block."

"Let's drive there. Just the two of us. We can find a nice place and be completely _alone._ " 

Lance immediately regretted his words when he was practically dragged towards one of those floaty vehicles. He didn't trust those and he trusted this frenzied alpha even less. 

* * *

To say Lance was anxious would be an understatement. It took every bit of self-control not to jump out of this floaty car's window, every fibre of his being not to look as incredibly scared as he felt. _I should have just sounded that damn alarm._

The car stopped, prompting Lance to finally focus on his surroundings more. He had heard about the East Block from Sona, but it was much worse than what she had described. It was essentially a slum. Had Lance stayed at the city hall like Cesar had wanted him to, he would have never known that this kind of place existed in Persia. He would have thought it was all some kind of technologically advanced utopia; now he was faced with the reality: shabby, broken houses, people in mismatched, worn out clothes, dirty streets. It was no hell hole, but it was certainly less fortunate than the areas Cesar had led him through. _I guess this is where omegas stay_. 

Lance was so lost in thought, he only remembered his situation when a body pressed into his, pushing him into his seat further and further. 

"Omega…"

 _Shit._ "Hey uh… why don't we, you know… find a hotel or something? Would be much more comf–"

"No."

"I-I don't really–"

" _Now."_  

A gasp passed Lance's lips when a hand began tearing at his clothes, the alpha's crazed eyes focused on his body like it was a tasty piece of meat. Fingers dug into his skin, lips over his skin, breath against his ear. There was no room, nowhere to escape to. Lance hissed when his arm got twisted the wrong direction, but he persevered through the pain. 

The alpha finally stopped when he heard the a buzzing noise and felt the nozzle of a rifle against his head. He looked unperturbed, seeming to not quite understand what was happening. Lance used that moment of distraction to pull up his legs and kick the alpha in the chest, sending him flying back into the driver's seat. Only hesitating a second, Lance then flipped his rifle and bashed the stock into the Velonian's jaw. He breathed a sigh of relief when the alpha collapsed into his seat, out cold.

Wheezing, sweat rolling down his temple, Lance reverted his bayard to its regular form and attached it to where he had hid it on the back of his belt, his coat covering the bump on his lower back. Glancing at the Velonian for another second, he quickly exited the car, legs still unsteady. Ignoring the way his mind couldn't seem to stop racing, hot flashes suddenly taking over his body, he continued marching towards his destination. He could still vaguely remember the map the Velonian had pulled up in his office, so he technically should be able to find the drop-off place for all the reassigned omegas, including Sona. 

Lance was glad he hadn't chosen any of the fancy clothes made of more high quality material. He would feel like an ass walking around in this kind of district wearing embroidered shirts and thick, luscious scarves. It would be nothing short of disrespectful and coming from a family that wasn't off all that well either, he knew _he_ would be at least a little put off. He passed by houses that were barely intact, abandoned streets that no one bothered to clean, people huddled together in corners and gaps between houses. It made Lance's heart sink, vaguely reminding him of a darker time in his childhood.   

Trying to blend in as much as possible, sticking to more shadowy areas and never looking anyone directly in the eyes, Lance eventually arrived at a large factory-like area. Humongous metal boxes with windows filled the entire perimeter, artificial blueish light shining out from inside. Trucks were lined up in a small parking area, everything disturbingly clean and polished; an unsettling contrast to the dirty streets Lance had just come from.  

Lance settled in a gap between two warehouse-like buildings, sitting down and burying his head in his knees. Exhaustion suddenly pulled at his mind, trying to seduce him into letting go, relaxing. Falling asleep. Straightening back up, he blinked his eyes open with a start. It was almost like he could hear his mom shouting _"Lance, don't sleep in the hallway! If you're gonna sleep at noon, at least do it where no one will trip over you"_. Before his eyes could well up with even more tears, Lance buried the memories, trying to focus on the task at hand. 

After an hour or so of catching himself slumping, eyes falling shut, chunks of time lost to brief seconds of half-sleep, a large dark-blue truck finally arrived. Almost robotically, it drove into an empty lot, soundlessly coming to a halt. Lance waited for the driver to reach for his door, then dashed out. 

Before the driver had the time to react, Lance had already slammed an elbow in the guy's neck, eliciting a disturbing choking noise, followed by the Velonian slumping back into his driver's seat. The one in the passenger seat made for his own door, panicked, eyes wide and furious, only to have Lance fly through the driver door and towards him. He yanked him back by the collar and used the force to knock the Velonian's head into his own. Lance could hear a disgusting cracking noise when the Velonian's nose knocked into his skull; like celery snapping in half. Lance came away panting, sweat rolling off his temples, ears ringing. He could already feel a headache throbbing behind his eyeballs. Taking a deep breath, he rummaged through the driver's pockets, finding only lint and small scraps of paper. Shoving his hand into the other guy's pockets, he immediately grasped something thin and solid. It was some kind of card, black with a silver line. Jumping out of the car, he rushed towards the back, where he could already hear hushed murmuring from inside. Swiping the card over a black square on the door, the lights next to it lit up and the door began to slowly roll open without making any sound. 

A dozen or so pairs of bright amber and nearly black eyes stared at him, all holding the same look of fear and frustration. Gulping, taking a deep breath, Lance backed away slightly, eyes eventually falling on a particularly small girl inside. "Sona!"

Tears welled up in the girl's eyes, her hands shooting up to cover her trembling lips. "You really came," she whispered, voice barely audible. 

"You know him?" one of the older girls questioned, amber eyes seemingly lighting up, growing even sharper. Sona could merely nod, prompting the girl to give Lance a quick once over. "You don't look all that reliable. I could probably snap you in half easily."

She _was_ about three heads taller than Lance, so she was probably right. "Doesn't change the fact that I came to save you." 

" _Save_ us?" That same suspicion and doubt shone in the girl's eyes, as though the notion of a strangers helping others out of the simple kindness of their heart was entirely unheard of. Which, Lance had to admit, seemed to simply be the norm here. At least when it came to omegas. "You're all omegas?"

"Yeah," the older girl dead-panned. She reminded Lance of a girl that had been his neighbour for about two years when he was a kid. She had bullied him. He didn't like her. "What's it to you? You gonna sell us or something?"

"No, I just…" This was no time to be Lance, the goofy fighter pilot. It was high time for him to be the Blue Paladin of Voltron. "Have any of you heard of Voltron?"

* * *

"Carry him into my office." The Velonian joined Keith in supporting Shiro, who immediately hissed under his breath when he was jostled. "He'll be safest there."

Allura clearly didn't seem fond of the suggestion, eyebrows pulled together into a frown. "I'm sure there are places that are better equipped to deal with this kind of–"

"Just trust me," Baki insisted, tone unusually heavy. "You don't want him in one of Cesar's facilities, no matter how grave his injuries. What's wrong with him anyway? He didn't get hit that hard, did he?"

"He was injured in a previous battle," Allura replied reluctantly, posture relaxing slightly. 

Things had been going well. Acknowledging that blindly searching for Lance would lead nowhere, the team had ended up helping the Velonians and battling whoever was attacking them. It would gain them some trust and possibly more resources to search for Lance. At least that had been the plan, until the Black Lion had begun becoming sluggish, eventually unable to dodge the majority of attacks directed at it. Shiro's head injury had caught up to him, resulting in him getting even more hurt. And no matter how much Coran called him a stubborn Zoida – whatever _that_ was –, he wouldn't budge, insisting that he was fine.   

Once Shiro was laid on Baki's couch, Allura directed her sharp gaze at the Velonian, sparks seeming to fly from her eyes. "Unless you have information on Lance, there really is no reason for us to be talking. There is no proof that you actually have some kind of agreement with Lance."

"Even if I have a handwritten note from him?"

"What?" Hunk perked up suddenly, rushing forward. The moment Baki had pulled out said note, Hunk was already reaching for it, snatching it away eagerly. "Guys… this is Lance's handwriting. No way it's fake." 

"Really?" Pidge exclaimed, glasses almost slipping off with the sudden movement, the paladin scrambling to get a glance at the note. "Uh…"

"I was hoping you could tell me what he wrote," Baki explained. "I'm not familiar with Earth's writing system, so I can't read it."

"That's not really your fault though," Pidge said in a deflated tone. "This is completely illegible. No one would be able to read this. Is this even English? It could be any language, really. Could be Hebrew, for all I know."

Unbothered by Pidge's comments, Hunk was still staring at the note. "It says that he wants us to cooperate with Baki."

"You can read that?" Pidge exclaimed incredulously.

Keith, who had been silently attending to Shiro on the couch, straightened up to look at Hunk intently. "What else does it say?"

 _"Crazy stuff happening here. Off to save some locals_ ," Hunk read out loud. " _Baki's trustworthy. I have a deal with him, so ask him if anything comes up. Beware of that Cesar guy. Creepy dude and I think he knows what I'm trying to do. Guy's a mindreader or something. Try not to get involved with him. –Your dashing knight in blue armor, Lance._ "

"Yeah, that's definitely from Lance," Pidge groaned, a sigh slipping out. "How did you get this?"

"I found that note on my desk and his paladin armour in my wardrobe after I first talked to you," Baki replied, a smirk taking over his face. "He has already fulfilled his end of the deal, so I am fully intending to support you in any way I can."

"But you still will not tell us what this _deal_ entailed exactly," Allura spat, eyes gleaming with suspicion. She seemed to know what the deal entailed, giving reason to her clear distaste of Baki.  

"I don't think Lance would be all that fond of me telling you details like that," Baki shot back calmly, but with a certain smug edge. "Just ask him when he is inevitably returned to you and if he is comfortable saying anything, he will." 

It was clear as day by the way Baki was choosing his words that something downright _scandalous_ must have happened between him and Lance. At this point, the rest of the team was beginning to catch on as well. And by the looks of it, Baki really didn't mind. 

* * *

"Go into that alley on the right."

"That's an alley?" 

"Just do it."

Hunching his shoulders, Lance obliged and steered the truck into a narrow gap between two houses. Calling it an _alley_ was being optimistic.

This girl, Vera, somehow managed to be _worse_ than the girl that used to bully Lance. The Blue Paladin, Saviour of the Universe, pilot of a war machine lion, _flinched_ whenever her cold, sharp amber eyes flicked towards him. Lance could almost feel her pupils searing through his skin. No amount of sweet-talking or charming could thaw her frigid attitude. In fact, Lance trying to be flirty and suave with her had probably made her hate him even more. "So uh… you're the leader?"

"Huh?"

Her dismissive tone and annoyed glare felt like a physical punch to Lance's chest. He could almost feel his second grade bully kicking him in the stomach. "Of this… group. Everyone seemed to listen to you."

"Cause I'm the oldest one."

"That's all?" Seeing her eyes narrow, Lance almost panicked. "I-I just thought you uh… were a natural born leader or something and that's why everyone listens to you." 

Vera sighed, clearly not buying Lance's attempt at complimenting her. "Isn't it normal to listen to people older than you? You're really not from around here at all, huh?"

Lance simply chuckled sheepishly. Usually he would have had something smart and witty and incredibly charming to say to woo the girl right off her feet, but he had a feeling that light-hearted humour wasn't Velonians' strong suit. The only reason Vera was sitting beside him in the passenger seat instead of Sona was because Vera still didn't trust him. He could probably save her from a burning house and she would _still_ spit in his face. "Are you sure you'll be fine just… going back home? Won't someone just come after you and find you there?"

"Not really," Vera mumbled, only half her attention on their conversation. "We're driving pretty deep into Persia ghettos. The deeper you go, the less accurate any existing maps will be. Even betas with all their advancements in technology won't be able to find their way around. And losing a handful of omegas isn't going to bother them much." Vera seemed to notice Lance staring at her, her posture instantly stiffening. "What?"

"N-Nothing, I just…" Lance wanted to sigh in frustration. Even Keith, resident hothead of Voltron, wasn't this easily riled up. "You don't seem all that… _omega-like_. I mean I don't feel like one either, but omegas don't exist where I come from, so I'm not sure what they would even be like really. But you…" Lance watched Vera's expression morph from tense and suspicious to something much more neutral, almost indecipherable. "What's your rank?" Instantly, Lance's heart began violently pumping blood through his body, preparing him for the possibility of having to bail out of this truck when Vera inevitably tried maiming him. He _really_ should just keep his mouth shut instead of risking trampling all over possible taboos.

"Twenty."

"What?"

" _Twenty._ "

"Uh…" Lance wanted to ask. He really did. But somehow he had a feeling he already knew the answer. 

"According to those pompous assholes, I have an _attitude problem_."

 _I can see that_ , Lance thought, biting his tongue to prevent himself from saying anything out loud.

"I don't act like an omega should, all submissive and timid, so I _must_ be trying to defy them. It's all to rebel and be some kind of insurgent. Of course."

 _So they_ do _know about sarcasm_.

"Stop," she suddenly said.

"What?"

"Stop the truck."

"Oh…" Considering what omegas apparently were supposed to be like, Lance could definitely see why people would see an issue with Vera's attitude. If she hadn't told him otherwise, he would have assumed she was an alpha through and through. 

As soon as the truck came to a stop, Vera flung open the passenger side door and hopped out. Rushing to the back, Lance could hear her already chatting with the other omegas through the door. Aggressive as she was, at least Vera's heart was in the right place. Lance hurried to follow after her, finding her already helping the others out of the back of the truck. To his surprise, Sona's face lit up as soon as she saw him. She ran up to him, looking happy but also hesitant. 

"I–I…" She fidgeted, fingers picking at the seam of her shirt. "Thank you."

All his doubts and worries seemed to wash away with those simple words, causing a warm smile to spread on Lance's face. "You're welcome." 

Looking just a tiny bit less prickly now, Vera came up from behind Sona. "What're you going to do now?"

Rubbing the back of his neck, Lance grinned. "I'll just keep driving around and stopping the truck every once in a while, just to confuse anyone who might be tracking us. And you'll keep walking from here, right? This isn't _actually_ your home, is it?" 

Narrowing her eyes, Vera gave the paladin a suspicious once-over, before finally uncrossing her arms. "How will you get back? You have no idea where you are."

 _So rather than lie to my face, she's just not gonna answer._ "Don't worry about me. I'll find my way around somehow." Grinning now, Lance felt like Vera was finally _not_ ready to murder him anymore. 

"I said betas don't care about a handful of runaway omegas," Vera said ominously, eyes focused intently on Lance, "what they _will_ care about is someone knocking out two betas on active duty. Especially if that someone steals a truck full of their property."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks." Confident grin not faltering, Lance affectionately patted Sona on the head, whispered a soft "Bye", then made to go back into the truck.

"Wait."

When he turned back around, Vera was in front of him, staring down at him with that unreadable stare of hers. "Come to the blue bridge at the end of the river to the West. We'll come pick you up."

 _We?_ "Uh… sure." Although he was grateful for the offer, Lance couldn't be sure what exactly Vera's intentions were; she still didn't seem all that fond of him. At the very least, he knew she wouldn't harm him. Much.

* * *

The sun was nearly gone by the time Lance got to the bridge. True to his word, he had randomly driven the truck around, stopping and going, eventually driving it into a murky orange-tinted lake and watching it sink into darkness. After a few minutes of walking, he had almost immediately given up trying to find his way back. Only after being lost in a maze of crooked houses and ruins did he eventually find the river and the nearby bridge.

"No one here, I guess." Feeling awkward and exposed just standing at the bridge, Lance decided to instead wait underneath it. Maybe it would be less cold there. 

 _Is that some animal?_ is what Lance thought as he plodded down towards the riverbed, wondering about the strange shuffling sounds. Eyebrows furrowed into a puzzled frown, Lance suddenly came face to face with disgruntled amber eyes. Three pairs of them. "Oh… uh… hi?"

Three middle-aged Velonians were huddled around some kind of flickering green light and staring back at him, looking not at all pleased by Lance's awkward entrance.

"You should leave, kid," the bearded one grumbled, eyes going back to the fire-like thing inside a little pot. "It's gonna get cold soon." 

"Hey, don't be hasty," another one murmured. "We can just keep him warm." 

The bearded one sighed, slumping together slightly. "I'm too old for this. If you want to harass some omega, go ahead. Just keep me out of it." 

The other two chuckled at each other, before slowly getting up and shooting Lance predatory stares.

 _Alphas…_ Prepared to pull his bayard out within a split second, Lance backed away slightly. When one of them suddenly charged at him, he slipped on wet grass trying to dodge, tumbling to the ground. By the time he was standing again, the other one was nearly at his throat. Lance threw up his arms to deflect the hands trying to grab a hold of him. Jumping back and out of reach, he finally reached for his bayard, only to have someone grab his arm and twist it behind his back. _Shit, the other one–!_ Lance was pushed to the ground, the air knocked out of his lungs, one of the Velonians keeping a knee on his back. 

 _Shit…_ Lance gasped for air, ribs painfully digging into the hard ground. He wasn't _bad_ at hand-to-hand combat; he was pretty decent in a fight, actually. It was a different story when he had _two_ opponents who were grossly superior to him in sheer mass and physical strength, especially considering he was more of a ranged combat guy. Unable to shake off the heavy weight pushing him down, Lance could do nothing but struggle fruitlessly, hissing and glaring at the alpha sitting on his back. "Get off!" he growled.

"Oooooh, you're actually fighting back," the alpha chuckled. "That's new." He eyed Lance closer, seemingly realising that something was off. "Hey, wait… you're not…"

"You realise that _now_?" the other one asked, a hint of mockery in his voice. "He's probably that alien pilot everyone's been talking about. The one that shot down a few of those Orak shitheads." 

"Heh…" The alpha's amber eyes suddenly seemed to gleam ominously. "So he ran off? I guess even aliens can't stand betas." A bellowing laugh suddenly burst from his chest, shaking Lance's thin frame underneath him. "This'll be fun."

The knee pushing down on Lance's back suddenly left and a thick, muscly arm snaked around the blue paladin's waist instead, pulling him up and against the alpha's larger body. The alpha whispered something into his ear, biting and nipping at his neck, but Lance couldn't make it out over the sound of his own blood rushing through his head. His brain felt like it was vibrating within his skull. 

Limp at first, he suddenly began to struggle again, desperately trying to kick and hit the broad alpha. He didn't seem to care though, even when Lance managed to sock him square in the jaw. The other one simply kneeled beside them, watching the spectacle and shouting something Lance still couldn't quite make out. When a rough hand snaked under his loose shirt, it finally clicked that something horrible was about to happen. His entire body went cold, lungs suddenly too small, limbs numb. _Am I really this helpless?_

"Hey!" 

The hand slipping into his pants stopped. It remained hot on his skin, large enough to cover his entire stomach. 

"Oh… it's you," the weathered alpha sighed, still sounding unperturbed by the spectacle in front of him. 

"Let him go," a familiar voice demanded. "He's mine."

The grip around Lance didn't loosen. In fact, the alpha's grip tightened to the point of being painful. Meanwhile the other alpha seemed to loudly spit on the ground, very obviously displeased by the appearance of this newcomer.

"Filthy omega," he spat. "Why don't you just go back to your little ragtag group of fanatics and leave the adult stuff to us."

Then there was a tense silence. 

Lance could tell there was some sort of tension simply judging by the way the alpha on top of him suddenly stopped and went slightly rigid. Some kind of wordless exchange was happening and he had no idea what was going on. 

Suddenly, the weight pushing him down left, along with the thick arm curled around him. Trying to look as unaffected as possible, he slowly rose to his feet. The one staring back at him with burning eyes was Vera. She jerked her head at him, signalling him to follow her. He did, but only after cautiously glancing at the alphas still surrounding him. They looked disgruntled, shooting him angry glares and clicking their tongues, the dying sun at the horizon tinting everything magenta.

He arrived at Vera's side with hunched shoulders and a clenched jaw. She led him away for a while, through dark alleys and quiet side streets, letting him silently follow behind her. 

"You okay?" she eventually asked.

"I'm fine," was all that Lance said.  

Vera didn't press him on it and he would have thanked her for that if he wasn't still struggling to breathe. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for the nice comments and all the kudos! As usual, I will be updating again next Friday.


	4. Panic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a bit of a writer's block while writing the first couple paragraphs, so I apologise if it sounds wonky.

Candle light. 

That was the first thing that stood out to Lance. The orange flame illuminating the room, its shadows dancing across walls. To think that in such a technologically advanced place, candles were still a much needed necessity… 

Standing uncertainly in the middle of the room as several Velonians stared at him quizzically, Lance had to suppress a nervous laugh and the urge to make some kind of quip. Based on his experience with Vera, it probably wouldn't end well. 

"So he's the alien everyone's been talking about?" a male Velonian asked into the room, face obscured by shadow. 

Vera simply nodded, looking far too relaxed considering everyone looked ready to kill Lance the second he made a wrong move.

"And he's not dangerous?"

"Only to himself," Vera replied off-handedly. "He's weak, stupid and ignorant. Naive to a ridiculous degree. He trusted me unconditionally and did exactly as I told him."

Lance shrunk back slightly when he heard exasperated groaning and piercing laughter all around him. In this semi-darkness, he couldn't even make out most of the faces surrounding him, the voices blending together into one intimidating cacophony of sound. 

"Then why did you bring him?" This male Velonian gave off the vibe of a leader, but he seemed to be on an equal level to Vera. His face, like almost all others, was completely hidden in shadows.

Vera was the only one visible within the darkness, as she was holding one of the very few candles. "He could be useful to us." The glint in her eyes was anything but reassuring.

"Who are you?"

It was the first time this leader of sorts was addressing Lance directly, causing him to stammer for a second. "L-Lance. Blue Paladin of Voltron." All of a sudden, hushed whispers sounded all around him, making the paladin glance around uncertainly.

"And you're willing to aid us?" 

Eyes snapping back to the leader guy, Lance hesitated. "Um… depends." Seeing the leader's head lower dangerously, he immediately knew that had been the wrong answer.

"Why did you bring him?" the leader now asked Vera again, who was shooting Lance a frustrated look.

"Even if he doesn't help us willingly, we can still use him as a hostage against the rest of his little team of battle kitties. He owes me a favour though, so we might as well use the fact that he belongs to some kind of band of lion cowboys to finally set our plan in motion. Either way, having him on our side is beneficial."

The leader seemed to contemplate Vera's words for quite a while, occasionally glancing at the sweating paladin in question. The room had gone disturbingly quiet, making it hard to believe that anyone else was there. Eventually, the leader sighed, posture easing up a bit and some of his suffocatingly authoritative atmosphere dissipating. "Fine. Tell him the basics and have him decide what to do. Not that he has much of a choice." He said those last words with a pointed look at Lance, the underlying threat clear as day. Lance watched the leader go, eyes finally adjusting to the darkness. He felt oddly drawn to this guy, despite his threats. 

Vera suddenly walked up to Lance, fixing him with a flat look. "We're trying to overthrow the government because it's a totalitarian hellhole that separates its citizens into classes in which betas are the only ones with any real rights, alphas are metaphorically, and sometimes literally, neutered and omegas are considered lesser than even the animals we use for food and labour."

To say Lance was overwhelmed would be an understatement. "Wait, wha–"

"Shh," Vera hissed. "I'm not done." Grabbing Lance by the arm, she pulled him towards a more secluded area in a far corner of the large room. "We have a plan. It's going to be a long, gruelling battle, but we're planning to eventually create a democratic nation in which everyone has equal rights. To do that, we need to achieve three things: take out Cesar, turn the private military under him, mostly alphas, over to our side and finally, make the general public, betas, realise how stupid they're being. Last one will probably be the hardest part. You wouldn't think our oh so smart betas lack in intelligence in any way, but you'd be surprised to know just how shortsighted and stupidly compliant they are." 

"Um–"

"I don't think I have to explain how big of a help having Voltron on our side would be."

"Uh–"

"You know, just to maybe scare betas and knock them down a few pegs."

Really, what was Lance supposed to say to all this? Sure, he _wanted_ to help them, but he couldn't just join some kind resistance movement out of the blue. "I'll uh… I…" Lance finally met Vera's eyes, _really_ looked at her, and for the first time since meeting her, felt like she actually viewed him as an equal. She was scary and vulgar and aggressive, but he already knew that she cared deeply about those around her. And judging by the fire he could see in her eyes now, she cared about the greater good more than her own. "I'll do my best to help. I'm sure if I explain the situation to my team, they'll help too." It was risky and maybe a bit naive, but even after half a day or so on this planet, Lance could tell which side he would rather fight on.

Vera smirked at him, which probably was the most genuine kind of smile Lance could ever expect from her. "Good," was all she said. She spent a moment simply looking around her, at all the people huddled around, chatting and strategising.

Now that his eyes had adjusted to the darkness even more, Lance took that chance to finally look at where he even was, all the people surrounding him. Women and children, old and young Velonians, men and women around his age or even younger, some in normal outdoor clothes, some in gear and armour. Clearly, this was some kind of stronghold that kept rebels, their families, friends and other people safe. It was the first time that Lance actually saw Velonians smiling, children playing, women chatting amongst each other, albeit always with a certain muted energy. No smile was entirely carefree, no face free of stress. 

"We don't need your help right away," Vera suddenly spoke up, prompting Lance to snap out of his musings and meet her eyes again. "We'll try to get you back to your team somehow and then go from there. First on the list is taking Cesar out. If he goes down, the government instantly crumbles and it'll be easier to take over in the resulting confusion. We've been preparing for this for years at this point, so we can't rush it. We consider you an ally, but not a comrade, understand? If you compromise the plan in any way, we'll cut you out immediately. Off you, if necessary."

Lance gulped, but nodded. He could feel her piercing gaze run over him like some kind of scanner, making him bite the insides of his lips nervously. She was scanning him, looking unsure as to what to say to him, what else to reveal and what to continue keeping secret.

"I'll give you some advice…" she suddenly said, stepping up to the paladin and jabbing a finger into his chest. "If you trust _anyone_ , you die. Just focus on your own survival. You wouldn't have ended up in this mess to begin with if you had just ignored Sona and the other omegas. You'd probably be back with your team right now."

Slightly dumbfounded, Lance slowly nodded. He knew he would make the exact same decisions again if he ever found himself in a similar situation in the future, but he wasn't going to argue with Vera about that. Arguing with her about _anything_ seemed like a bad idea. And so he simply waited until Vera left after giving his chest a little smack. He watched as she retreated to some corner and saw her join a few of the omegas he had helped free earlier, among them Sona. When she noticed him, she waved at him enthusiastically, face much brighter and happier than when he had first met her. 

Most of the Velonians paid Lance no mind, too busy with their own things. Some of them would shoot him suspicious looks, whisper amongst each other when they thought he didn't notice. Too bad for them that Lance was overly conscious of his surroundings and constantly listening in on anyone possibly gossiping about him out of a deeply rooted sense of paranoia and self-consciousness. _I can hear all you assholes_ , he thought as he walked around trying to pretend he was completely unaware.

Lance ended up sitting down at an unoccupied table and considered taking a nap. He honestly didn't think anyone would attack him in his sleep. If he wasn't welcome and someone had wanted him dead, he already would have gotten attacked. And so, with his eyes growing heavy and his limbs suddenly feeling damn near paralysed, Lance folded his arms over the table and rested his head on top. Only now, surrounded by the comforting lull of people chatting quietly and _not attacking him_ , did Lance realise how tired he actually was. He hadn't slept before noticing the distress signal and hadn't gotten a chance to ever since leaving the Castle. A sense of calm finally took over his body for the first time in an eternity.

And then suddenly, an explosion of chaos.

People all around Lance suddenly emerged from the shadows, disappearing into different directions, yelling, screaming, hissing. The noise was deafening. Meanwhile, Lance couldn't do anything but stand there listlessly, his chair laying overturned on the ground, eyes searching frantically for Vera, any help. Then he remembered her words _"Just focus on your own survival,"_ he repeated under his breath. 

Then the banging on the door started. Lance could already hear the wood cracking, splinters raining off of it in little clouds. It seemed to groan and wheeze under the force like a century old man desperately hanging on to life. Taking a look around the room, Lance could tell a lot of people wouldn't be able to escape in time. There were the wounded, impaired and young; all people that would die a miserable death should they be found together with rebels. 

Then he finally found Vera. He saw her holding Sona's hand, leading her fellow omegas through what appeared to be one of many secret exits. She would have to close it any second now so that the intruders wouldn't find it immediately and pursue them, but there were still too many waiting to go through. Any way you looked at it, it couldn't end well. 

Before he had time to decide otherwise, Lance ran. "Keep going," he told Vera as soon as he reached her. "I'll hold them off." 

In response, Vera stared at him with that flat glare, emotions and thoughts closed off. Meanwhile the banging on the door only seemed to grow louder, more grating. "You're going to die."

 _That's not what you're supposed to say in this situation!_ Giving up hope of any sort of movie-like interaction happening, Lance chuckled nervously. "I promise I'll do better this time." He wanted to say _"Trust me"_ , but he already knew she wouldn't. 

The only movie-like thing that happened was that Lance knew everything that was happening around him. Or rather, Lance's mind was racing, the entire room suddenly within his perception, every corner, every place where people were desperately trying to escape, every curse, cry and whimper reaching his ears. 

Hands sweaty, he reached for his bayard. He gulped when it transformed into his familiar rifle, suddenly unusually heavy in his grasp. Nodding to himself, he turned and brusquely headed for the door that was about to come down any second. By the sound of it, behind it could have been a bull or an elephant. Splinters sailed through the air like debris, holes beginning to appear in the wood. 

The moment Lance readied his rifle, he noticed the Velonians gathering around him. A group of seven stood next to him with weapons, determination burning in their eyes. When one of them, a female, noticed Lance's puzzled look, she grinned.

"Can't have some alien save us twice in the same day."

Lance had no time to respond in any way, because in that moment, the door exploded. 

He was shooting before he could even truly make out what was coming. Lance saw two dark shapes going down in the entrance, crumpling to the floor. Others jumped over the bodies, entering the room. Finally, Lance could see the pristine white uniforms and polished weapons. 

At first it was relatively easy to take down whoever came in, seeing how the door served as a choke point. But soon, armoured units rushed in with shields, rendering most weapons useless. The colour drained from Lance's face when he saw his shots bouncing off the angular transparent shields. _What now?_  

He let out a gasp when someone to his left went down, followed by another one letting out an anguished scream behind him. He barely had time to process what was happening, before he heard a wet thud right at his feet. Looking down, he saw the female Velonian from earlier. 

Anger suddenly sizzled through his every fibre, prompting him to rush his enemies. He knocked the shields right out of their hands, swinging his rifle around and knocking people out left and right. But before long, he realised that he was entirely outnumbered.

He couldn't hear fire from behind him anymore. There was no one left on his side.

The realisation made Lance stop in his tracks for a second, before he stumbled backwards to create distance between himself and the enemy. He finally noticed the ringing in his ears just as it began to fade. Immediately, he noticed someone guarded by two people speaking into his wrist, his voice nearly unintelligible through the noise. 

"–confirmed–…–take in–…" The surprisingly slender Velonian lifted a hand and barked some kind of order.

They instantly stopped shooting.

With the sudden deathly silence, Lance could now clearly hear what the guy was saying.

"We are ready to take the paladin in. The rebels have escaped and will be apprehended as well." He paused for a moment, seemingly listening to a response from the device on his wrist. "There are several casualties. Send clean-up to take care of the bodies."

The cold tone sent a shiver down Lance's spine. He had a feeling he knew who the alphas and betas were in this situation.

And then the words sunk in. Lance hadn't survived because they had been unable to take him down. He had survived because they had been planning to take him in all along. Already, he could see some of them approaching carefully, shields raised. 

"Don't let the rifle fool you," the apparent leader sneered. "Apparently this is the weakest paladin. He's an omega after all."

Lance let out an indignant squawk, ready to shoot back with some kind of quip. Then he had a better idea. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he told the approaching shield bearers. "See this thing?" He reverted his rifle into its bayard form and held it up over his head. "It has a self-destruct function. The explosion isn't big… just big enough to get out of a pickle in an emergency." A smirk stretched over his face. "But in a cave like this, even a small explosion can do a lot damage."

That stopped the shield bearers in their tracks, causing them to look at each other uncertainly. 

"You're bluffing," the leader suddenly said in a casual tone.

 _Shit_. Lance tried his darnedest not to let his panic show through. "Wanna risk it?"

The leader regarded him with bored disdain, amber eyes haughty and cold. Eventually, he released a long sigh and crossed his arms. "Your conditions?"

"How about you leave through that door you just came in from?" Lance suggested in a challenging tone. "It's pretty rude to enter someone else's home uninvited. You guys must have laws against that, don't you?"

"This is a raid," the leader replied dryly.

Lance was 100% sure now that Velonians had no sense of humour. "Still. _Rude_." He noticed the annoyed frown beginning to manifest on the leader's face, causing Lance no small amount of glee. "Kay, guess that's not an option." He definitely _sounded_ more confident than he felt. "Then let's do this: I'll go with you as long as you pinky promise me not to go after the others."

"You want us to let the rebels escape?"

"Yeah."

Again, that annoyed stare. Perhaps he was related to Cesar somehow. He murmured something into his wrist again, listened to the response, then let out an exasperated small groan. "Take him. Fi Squad, go after the rebels." 

"Wha–" Before Lance had an opportunity to protest, he was suddenly thrown to the ground. He expected his bayard to be taken, but no one dared to touch it. The sense of relief he felt at that was crushed immediately once the leader walked up and picked it up like it was some kind of filthy rag. Granted, it _did_ look pretty beaten up. Lance hadn't exactly had time to polish it since leaving the Castle.

"Here," the leader mumbled, throwing it at one of the guys still in the entrance. He kneeled down next to Lance, until the paladin could meet his eyes from where his face was mushed into the floor. "If it was up to me, you would be dead now."

Only now Lance noticed how wet his face felt against the floor. The sweet iron stench that invaded his nose was overpowering, the lingering warmth making his insides turn. Apparently, Velonians bled just like humans.  

* * *

"What's going on?" 

Keith had only just started doing some light exercises in his room to release all this pent up stress, when suddenly Allura had summoned everyone to the conference room; the same conference room in which Cesar had all but shot down all their questions and requests earlier.

When no one answered Keith's question, he released the button on his earpiece with a click of his tongue and pulled his jacket back on with slightly too much force. Every member of the team had been given a private room in the city hall; a gesture they had accepted only reluctantly and with a hint of suspicion. Keith's body was buzzing with a tense, impatient energy, one that usually left after knocking down a few bots in the Castle's training room. But now it only served to make him feel all jumpy and on edge. With a member of their team missing for _this_ long, it was impossible to really fully relax. Not that they had ever been able to since leaving Earth.

Keith tried not to seem too urgent jogging towards the conference room, feeling a small glimmer of hope beginning to bloom in his chest. Maybe they had found Lance. Maybe they could go back to how things were supposed to be and just forget about this messy planet. That hope was immediately squashed though when he caught sight of the expressions on everyone's faces, Shiro with his signature frown, Allura wearing a neutral expression, but obviously trying to mask her own anxiety. Hunk and Pidge arrived at the same time as Keith, looking frazzled and immediately hounding their leader with questions. 

"We don't know exactly what's going on," Shiro explained with a frown. "But I have a feeling it's not good. It's been kind of hectic around here." He paused for a moment, his concern finally showing through. "Something happened."

In that moment, the wide double doors at the other side of the room slid open and Cesar entered together with a few other high-ranking Velonians, including Baki. He sat down at the large, circle-shaped table with calm poise. "I see you have already arrived, paladins. I apologise if I made you wait."

Already Keith wanted to strangle the guy. Cesar _knew_ they were impatient, _desperate_ for any news on Lance. He was teasing them, looking down on them, dangling Lance in front of their noses like a dog treat. Was this all some kind of game to him?

Shiro seemed to notice the anger pulsing off of Keith in waves, because he placed a hand on the brunet's shoulder, gently pulled him back and signalled him to remain calm. "We just got here. No need to apologise."

Cesar simply nodded at that, a slender Velonian walking up to him and handing him some kind of device. It looked almost like a beeper of sorts. Pressing a button resulted in it projecting out a slew of foreign symbols and graphics onto the transparent table. "I will skip the pleasantries and get straight to the point: the Blue Paladin aided known terrorists in attacking our citizens and threatened to set off a bomb, which potentially could have killed dozens of people. There are several casualties, among them civilians, and a large majority of victims were shot down by your paladin. General Varis lost many of his men today." He let the words hang in the air for a moment, finally looking up at Team Voltron. "I do not think I have to explain to you what kind of difficulties this presents."

Silence.

That pin drop, dead silence. The kind that was stifling, suffocating.

The first to regain their bearings was Allura, shocked expression making way for a more fierce and determined one. "This must be some kind of misunderstanding. Let us–"

"He will be put in front of our court tomorrow morning," Cesar interjected, eyes back on whatever his device was projecting. It was questionable whether he was actually interested in what he was reading or if he was intentionally showing off how little he cared about their thoughts. "His fate will be decided then. Considering he aided terrorists and killed civilians, I doubt we can simply return him to you and let him leave. Some kind of punishment must be dealt, do you not agree?"

Keith couldn't imagine Lance being some kind of cold-blooded murderer. For all he knew, this was all lies, just a ruse to keep the Blue Paladin in Persia for whatever reason. "Where's your evidence, huh? Where's your proof that Lance did all that?"

"Evidence?" Cesar seemed entirely unimpressed. He waved the slender Velonian from earlier to his side, whispering something in his ear. The Velonian disappeared towards the back of the room, after which the lights dimmed and a monitor that took up an entire wall lit up.

It was black for a second, then buzzed to life. For a moment, it showed nothing but flashes of colours and movement. Then it focused, cleared up, revealed what was happening: chaos. And Lance in the middle of it. 

Clad in loose dark clothes, tan skin covered with light splatters of blood, he was running at guards despite being a long range fighter. Even Keith flinched when he saw him bash in someone's head with his bayard. Lance's eyes were wild, making him look like some kind of crazed beast out for blood. He was surrounded by bodies. The video cut off when Lance reached whoever had been recording everything. There was a scream, pained wheezing, then silence. 

The screen was black only for a moment, flashing up again and showing a different perspective now. The view was obstructed by other guards, but Lance's voice could be heard.

 _"–xplosion isn't big."_  

A few of the guards whispered to each other in fearful, hushed voices. 

_"But in a cave like this, even a small explosion can do a lot damage."_

Again, the screen went black. This time for good.

"There is your evidence," Cesar spoke up, dispelling the tense air. "Now, since you seem to be unable to explain to me this _misunderstanding_ , I will take my leave. I have to deal with the aftermaths of an attempted terror attack after all."

He was gone before anyone could even come up with some kind of response. Everyone was too baffled by the footage of Lance essentially mowing down guards in a mad frenzy, not to mention threaten to set off a _bomb_ , by the sound of it. There had been no one else around him, no one he could have been protecting. What reason would he have to attack and threaten Velonian guards, the same people that he had deemed _safe_ mere hours earlier? 

"We need to talk to Baki," Shiro eventually murmured, snapping everyone out of their dazes. "He has to know something."

* * *

Bright, garish light forced its way between Lance's eyelids, making him let out a displeased grown. He tried covering his eyes from the light, only to find that he couldn't move his arms. The realisation made his eyes snap open, taking a second to adjust before he could see clearly. The next moment, he was staring at the floor. A _moving_ floor. 

"Wha…" Unable to form words, Lance finally realised that he was being carried, tucked tightly under the arm of a huge Velonian. Even for this planet's standards he was big, footfalls heavy and booming. _Must be an alpha_. "Hey, uh–"

"You better keep that mouth shut."

Lance instantly recognised that snooty voice and self-righteous tone, memories rushing back into his mind. Memories of the sudden raid, people fighting at his side going down one by one, his bluff being called by this pretentious asshole. Immediately, he focused a heated glare on that same Velonian's back now walking ahead of him. Something on his uniform jingled with each step as he walked past empty prison cell after empty prison cell.

"I recommend you behave until your trial, at least. Maybe the judges will be a bit more lenient if I tell them of your subservient behaviour." 

Honestly, was it some kind of ingrained beta trait to sound stilted and pompous? "Fuck off," Lance spat in response.

"I'm going to assume that's some kind of insult." 

"Wait…" Only now did Lance process the words. "Trial? What trial?"

A small chuckle left the Velonian, shoulders shaking slightly with the sound. "You didn't think you could get away with shooting down my _precious_ men, Velonian citizens, without any consequences, did you? And threatening us with some sort of terrorist attack as well! Horrendous!"

Lance was at a loss for words. Sure, he _had_ done those things. In a way… But not like _that_! "You're spinning this the wrong way! I just–"

"Ah!" the Velonian cut him off with a smirk. "I'm not the judge. I don't care."

"Dunno, looks to me like you're making this pretty personal." Lance didn't miss the way the guy's shoulders stiffened, his smirk growing cold.

Instead of replying to Lance, he simply turned to the alpha carrying him. "Guard…"

"Yes, General Varis."

Lance could feel the vibrations of the prison guard's voice throughout his entire body. The deep timbre made his hairs stand on end uncomfortably. 

"I want _that_ ," Varis dismissively nodded towards Lance, "in one of the containment cells."

"But, Sir–" As soon as the guard saw the sharp coldness in Varis' amber eyes, he clamped his mouth shut. "Very well." 

All Lance could do was glance between the two, a confused frown on his face. He watched as Varis headed off into some other direction, away from the cramped hallways of the prison. Lance let out a quiet gasp when he was readjusted and jostled around under the Velonian's arm. "Hey, uh… I can walk on my own, ya know." He received no answer. "Hey!" Still nothing. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Lance frantically tried coming up with some kind of plan. For some reason this guy wasn't reacting to him. Was that normal? Maybe he wasn't an alpha after all? "You're pretty big for a beta," he eventually said, still trying to chat up the guy and maybe gain his sympathy somehow. What other choice did he have? 

Suddenly the guard stopped.

Lance blinked down at the floor, confused as to what was happening. Glancing up with some difficulty, he could make out the guy's scarred face, deep purple eyes staring down at him with something akin to pity. "What?" 

The guard released a little huff. "I'm an alpha."

"Huh? Then why–"

"Alphas have to go through certain… procedures to be able to do a job like this."

The words made no sense to Lance, but somehow he had a feeling that it was probably better that way. "So um… dumb question, I know, haha, but… you don't mind uh… ya know… letting me go? Maybe? _Please_?" 

The guard was silent again and began walking, eyes solely focused on where he was going. 

"Yeah, okay. I totally get that, but uh… maybe we can work out some kinda deal? I scratch your back, you scratch mine type of thing? I'm _sure_ there's something I can do for you! Just leave it to the Blue Paladin and it'll be done!" 

Nothing he said seemed to work. Even the brief flash of emotion he had caught was gone, replaced by cold nothingness. This guy might as well be some sort of robot. 

 _This_ was when Lance began genuinely panicking. It was getting harder and harder to keep up his confident and unbothered facade. All his anxieties and fears were beginning to bubble up from his gut, crawling up his throat like they were trying to suffocate him. He was helpless. Completely and utterly _helpless_ , unable to do anything but watch as the hallways grew narrower, the prison cells noisier and the air thicker. 

When he could feel the ice-cold claws of panic closing around his throat, he began to struggle. He kicked, thrashed around and screamed, desperately trying to free himself from the guard's grasp. He managed to make the guy stop in his tracks, only to get wrestled around until he was hoisted over a broad shoulder, both of the alpha's arms wrapped around his waist. Punching and clawing at his back had no effect, knocking his elbow into his neck did nothing and kicking the air didn't help either. 

Hot tears shot into his eyes at the realisation that nothing he did could save him from impending doom. He _knew_ something bad was about to happen. If it made even the prison guard look at him like he was going to the execution block, then whatever was coming was going to be far from pleasant. He couldn't see through the tears obstructing his sight, a sob ripping from his throat. 

When the guard stopped again, Lance's heart went still. Emptiness rushed through his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs.

He heard the telltale shriek of some kind of metal door opening, before being unceremoniously tossed to the hard floor. He almost forgot about his situation when a piercing hot pain shot through his shoulder on impact, but dread quickly took over again. Looking up from the floor, he found himself in a cell. Walls to all sides, no windows, ratty mattresses. But most importantly: _other people_. He wasn't alone in this cell. 

Lance's eyes flicked to the door just in time to see it swing closed, the guard behind it shooting him one last pitying look, before the door clicked shut ominously and his fate was sealed. He almost didn't dare shift his eyes away from the door, afraid of what he would see, what would happen if he moved his head even an inch.  

A terrified shriek left him when his chin was grabbed roughly and his head turned. Suddenly, he was staring into curious orange eyes, claws digging into his cheeks. 

"Looks odd," the Velonian grumbled.

"An omega is an omega though," someone else grumbled with a certain gleeful edge.

Lance tried his hardest to stop shaking, to not look as terrified as he felt. He could barely form words, voice dying in his throat before it ever had the chance to come out. Eventually, he slapped the Velonian's hand away. "Don't touch me." He wasn't even sure what he was supposed to say, or how to say it. Should he be calm, aggressive, aloof, arrogant? Would he even be able to fake that kind of attitude? 

 _If I manage to kill one of them_ … He stopped short, mentally shaking his head, yet the thought wouldn't leave his mind. _Seriously… maybe I can intimidate them that way._

Immediately, he let his eyes wander over the group of Velonians all huddled together. All alphas; at least on first glance. There were six of them, the majority much taller and broader than most Velonians he had seen so far. Not as massive as the prison guard, but still big enough they could probably lift his tiny ass over their heads one-handed. Only two of them were slimmer and smaller in stature, but they still easily towered over him. One of the slender ones was the one whose hand he had slapped away. And he didn't look too happy.

He was rubbing his hand, eyeing Lance with clear distaste and sizing him up. "You don't look too threatening. Why're you here?" 

Lance gulped. Maybe he could scare them off. "I… killed a couple people."

The cell went silent. Suddenly, Lance felt like he was being appraised; like a cow at a livestock show. Maybe it had been the wrong move to tell Velonians about killing fellow Velonians. And he wasn't sure how to interpret the looks being sent his way. Mocking? Doubtful? Amused?

At the centre of the room, one of the Velonians was staring at Lance with crossed arms and a broadening smirk. The other alphas seemed hesitant to act, glancing at this alpha specifically, which gave Lance the feeling that this guy was the big boss of this cell. This Velonian's eyes were a pale purple, piercing and cold. And judging by the look in his eyes, Lance could tell things were about go South _fast_.

And so Lance took a silent breath, willing himself to calm down, before putting on a cocky smile. "You probably haven't seen an omega in what? Months? Years? Are you really gonna ruin your chances this easily?" He watched the alpha's eyebrows go up in both surprise and confusion, giving Lance time to continue rambling on to somehow save his skin. The air was already growing thick and hot, hungry eyes watching his every move. "Depending on how you behave… you can either have a really good time, or a really bad time. It's all up to you."

"Are you threatening me?" the alpha asked in a tone that sounded not at all impressed, slightly amused even.

Gulping, Lance could feel a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face, heart thumping in his chest hard enough it almost hurt. "Simply offering you a service. As long as it's _just_ you." He wasn't getting out of this cell any time soon. And no matter how much Lance sifted through his limited options, he couldn't come up with a better plan than somehow _seducing_ this alpha of alphas. It had worked out with Baki, even though he hadn't actually planned for things to happen that way. Perhaps it could work again. "You don't seem like someone who likes sharing."

The alpha scratched at his chin in thought, eyes very unashamedly running all over Lance's body, more and more heat swirling in those pale pools of lavender. "Guess we can arrange something." He then beckoned Lance towards him with a clawed finger.

It took Lance a moment to get his body to listen to him again. His limbs had tensed up so much that he felt paralysed for a second. When he did eventually get to his feet, he felt disconnected from his body, like he was about to slip out of it and disappear. Slowly, he walked towards the alpha, mindful of the many pairs of eyes following him. "Be gentle." He tried to sound casual and aloof, but just like with Baki, his facade probably wasn't all that convincing.

The alpha simply grinned at Lance. 

Perhaps his luck had run out once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter this time around. It just felt right to end the chapter this way. 
> 
> New chapter will come next Friday, as usual. Thank you again for all the kudos and nice comments! It's always nice to see those little email updates telling me people enjoy my work.


	5. Scream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for torture and gore. I'll underline the beginning and end of the scene in question again, in case anyone wants to skip it. There's also some graphic violence, but I already have a tag for that on this fic, so I won't specifically point it out.

Baki glanced up from his desk when his door was suddenly thrust open, a disgruntled Team Voltron marching inside. "I thought you'd come here," he sighed nonchalantly, not a sign of stress in his voice. 

As usual when dealing with the Minster of Defence, Allura looked disgruntled and annoyed at having to deal with this guy. But he was their only lifeline, their only source of information. Without him, their chances of retrieving Lance were slim. "What happened? Why is the Blue Paladin being treated like a criminal?"

Baki's amused face turned a bit more neutral, the Velonian rising from his desk to join them in the middle of the room. "He got involved in a raid," he began, sifting through a stack of papers from his desk. "There's a resistance group that's been nothing but a thorn in Cesar's side, even with their small numbers. A few hacking attempts and attacks on officials were linked to them, but the brass is convinced that something's brewing under the surface. So as soon as the location of their hideout was leaked, Cesar ordered for the entire thing to be wiped out. From what I've heard, Lance just so happened to be there and decided to fight on the side of the resistance. General Varis recognised him, so he ended up arresting him."

Some of the tension in Allura eased, but only slightly. "What about these outrageous claims that he killed civilians and attempted some sort of bomb attack?"   

"Those are half true, unfortunately." Crossing his arms and leaning against his desk, Baki looked to have gotten used to Allura's attitude by now. "It was a very chaotic battle and he did go a bit… _wild_ at some point, so it is entirely possible that he accidentally shot one of the civilians. We'll probably never know what actually happened there. He also tried bargaining with Varis to help the remaining rebels and civilians escape. Apparently, he threatened to set his weapon off and kill everyone inside if they didn't agree. He's a terrible liar though, so Varis saw through his bluff and just took him in."

Allura needed a moment to process the information, noticing her paladins glancing at her uncertainly. Even Shiro seemed somewhat stumped. "What is the plan?"

Baki simply raised his eyebrows at her, looking slightly perplexed. "Plan?" He set the stack of papers back down on his desk, then crossed his arms again. "Me providing you information isn't enough?"

"I thought you had a deal with Lance," Allura immediately shot back, crossing her arms as well. She briefly considered shapeshifting herself a few inches taller just to be eye-level with Baki.

"I'd say me committing high treason and risking my position to help you is enough on my end." Baki looked entirely relaxed, not in the least bothered that Lance's current situation was so precarious. 

Meanwhile, Allura let out a frustrated huff, at a loss for words. How could anyone be so heartless? How could Baki look so unbothered in the midst of this chaos?

Hunk suddenly stepped forward, gently pushing himself in front of Allura to face Baki. "What would it take for you to help us?" 

Baki did nothing but carefully observe Hunk for a few tense seconds. He seemed a bit surprised at this much more neutral approach and eyed Hunk with careful regard. "Depends on what you need."

"A way into wherever Lance is being held," Hunk immediately replied, eyes hard. "All we really want is to get him back and leave. We'd be willing to do a lot to make that happen."

That made the Velonian smirk. "I'd be willing to help if that means Voltron owes me a favour. I'm sure I'll need your assistance at some point." His smirk then finally morphed into a grin. "If you don't mind me calling on you at some point, you have yourself a deal."    

Hunk turned to glance at the rest of his team, clearly pleading them to agree. He could tell by their faces that none of them were all that stoked about owing this guy a favour, but what choice did they have? Eventually, Shiro nodded at him with a silent sigh, Allura not objecting either. Grinning as well now, Hunk turned back around to meet Baki's eyes. "Deal." Pidge suddenly walked up to Hunk, knocking an elbow into his back. The two exchanged meaningful looks, had some sort of silent conversation, before Hunk cleared his throat and fixed Baki with a stern gaze. "So uh… there's something you're not telling us, right?"

Remaining silent, Baki shot the two an expectant look, prompting them to elaborate.

This time Pidge spoke up, eyes glinting behind those round glasses. "Something's still off about this situation and you're not telling us what."

Barks of laughter suddenly came from the Velonian, his massive frame shaking with the sound. "There definitely _are_ some shady things going on," he said through intermittent chuckles, "but you knowing won't really change anything, so what's the point in telling you?"

"Um…" Hunk, looking at a loss, shrugged and sheepishly scratched his chin. "Give us a hint?"

Looking beyond amused, Baki continued chuckling to himself to himself. "Fine, I guess. Wouldn't hurt to throw you guys a bone or two."

Meanwhile, Allura was desperately face-palming somewhere behind Shiro.

Some of the amusement then left Baki's face, his smile waning. "Let's just say Cesar has his hands in everything. He's more of a mobster than a scientist in my eyes. All polite smiles and superficial chit-chat by day and executions by night." He watched as the colour seemed to drain out of some of the faces in front of him. "Just a figure of speech."

"You sound oddly familiar with him," Keith suddenly interjected from where he stood at the back of the office, glaring.

The words made Baki halt, a certain thoughtfulness entering his eyes. "I guess you could have described us that way at some point," he replied cryptically as he sat back down behind his desk. "If you don't mind, I have to make some phone calls to get you into that prison as quickly as possible. If you want Lance back fully intact, you'd better get him out before the day ends."  

They wanted to ask more, force Baki to give them more answers, but he was already phoning his contacts, all business now. It was no use trying to get more information out of him. 

All that was left for them to do was to prepare for a potential battle. 

* * *

His mother's voice echoing in his mind, Lance allowed himself to simply remember. Remember his mother constantly nagging his older sister to be careful, to not drink anything a stranger gave her unless she saw a bartender make it, to be suspicious of anyone being that little bit too friendly and overbearing. He had heard her lectures so often through the thin walls of his room that he could probably recite them from heart. Eventually, Lance became the target of those lectures as well. At the time, he didn't understand why. Why would anyone want to hurt him? He was just some scrawny, lanky kid. His sister always looked incredibly mature for her age, constantly looking several years older than she actually was, which she never hesitated to use to her advantage; hence his mother's nagging. But Lance? He was just… _Lance_. Some dude. Incredibly dashing and handsome, yes, but he was also able to handle himself just fine, thank you very much.

But now he understood. Now he finally understood the fear he always saw hidden in his mother's eyes when she told him to do everything in his power _not_ to get overpowered. To fight dirty if he had to, hurt people if he had to. Kill someone if he had to. 

It had seemed extreme and completely unfathomable to him when his mother had implied to him that he should legitimately try to kill anyone who tried to touch him against his will. Now it all made sense, making him wonder if anything had happened to his mother to make her talk that way.

His mother's nagging voice constantly at the back of his mind, Lance began to fight once things went sour. And they did so _fast_. The second the first rabid alpha attacked the lead alpha, all hell broke lose. Things almost instantly turned into a blur of red-hot pain, shadowy figures and noise. At some point, Lance could feel blood dripping down his face and he wasn't sure if it was his own. 

Anyone that got near Lance had to do so at the risk of getting bitten, kicked, punched, having fingers claw at their eyes, legs kicking at their groins, teeth clamping down on anything they could reach. And the more Lance dug his teeth into anyone that tried to hold him down, the more he felt like gagging, the coppery taste of warm blood gradually coating his mouth. 

And yet it didn't matter at all that blood was pouring over his entire face, dripping into his eyes and momentarily obstructing his view and turning his world red. 

Lance was almost certain he had managed to actually blind someone, one of the Velonians huddled in a corner clutching at his face and screaming curses. 

Approaching him came at a price. A price these guys were clearly willing to take, desperate and crazy enough to still come at him drooling and dripping. Two of the alphas already laid crumpled on the floor, one writhing and groaning, the other one motionless. Perhaps he was dead. 

 _Good_.

* * *

_"What's going on?"_ Allura's concerned voice echoed through the radio.

"Something's wrong with the lions," Shiro explained, hand pressed against his temple. "I think the Blue Lion wants to get to Lance, but can't. It's making all the lions agitated."

 _"What do we do?"_ Hunk suddenly asked, voice distorted through the radio transmission. _"We need to get it back."_

"The Blue Lion has been transported to the labs," Baki suddenly explained calmly. "Don't worry about it right now. We'll take care of that later."

"Okay," Shiro replied reluctantly, deciding to believe Baki for now. It wasn't like he had much of a choice anyway.

_"I should go with you after all. What if–"_

"No, Allura," Shiro cut her off firmly. "We need you in the Castle. Negotiations with Cesar fell through, so we have nothing left to do but take Lance by force. We need you to back us up from the Castle in case things go South."

It was obvious Allura wanted to argue, but eventually she caved and released a small sigh. _"I'll be here when you need me."_

"Thank you." A warm smile flashed over Shiro's face, before disappearing again almost immediately. 

With Coran and Allura back in the Castle, Team Voltron was left separated into two teams: Baki, Shiro and Keith were waiting to meet up with an informant in a park, while Hunk and Pidge were on standby near the back of the prison complex, ready to sneak Lance out once Shiro and Keith got him. For now, the plan was to gather information and scout out the area. Hopefully, they would find a way in soon; or at the very least, get Baki to tell them how exactly he was planning on getting Lance out.

Keith watched as Shiro's eyes turned steely, the Black Paladin shedding any semblance of his warm and soft demeanour. It still stunned Keith a bit every time he saw it; the way Shiro would change in the face of an upcoming battle. It was clear that being a gladiator of sorts for Galra entertainment had permanently shaped him. 

"He's coming," Baki suddenly said, standing up from the park bench he had been lounging on and walking towards an approaching figure. 

To both Shiro's and Keith's surprise, the face that came into view wasn't that of a stranger. 

"Isn't that the Minister of Justice?" Keith asked, eyebrows twisted into a confused frown.

Shiro looked almost just as bewildered, eyes intensely focused on the two alphas. "Yeah, Sano. I think."

Keith wasn't entirely sure what to think about this situation. Baki and Sano were too far away for them to be able to hear their conversation, but it was obvious that something was wrong. This wasn't two people exchanging information. With the way Sano's eyes immediately heated up at Baki's words, it was obvious that something more was going on. 

It happened almost too fast for Keith to even see. One second the two were standing together and simply talking, the next Sano had some sort of gun pointed at Baki's head. Immediately, Baki wrestled with Sano for the firearm. 

"Should we–"

"No," Shiro immediately cut Keith off. "He told us to wait here. He probably knew this was going to happen."

"But…" It wasn't that Keith was worried about the guy. But without Baki's help, they would be entirely helpless, unable to get to Lance unless some kind of miracle happened. 

Baki finally managed to take the gun from Sano and ended up throwing it towards Keith, who caught it after a stunned moment of fumbling. He perked up when he could suddenly hear both Baki's and Sano's voices, the two having come closer during their squabble.

"If you're going to double-cross someone, don't leave traces like that." Baki sounded like he was berating the other alpha rather than accusing him. 

"How did you know?" Sano suddenly hissed, voice almost too low to hear. "Cesar told me–"

"Cesar still doesn't get that he's not the only one who has his eyes everywhere," Baki shot back, exasperation swinging in his voice. "Now, are you gonna tell me what I want to know or not? You do want to see your sister again, don't you?"

The look in Sano's eyes turned venomous, hate and anger oozing from his every fibre. It made Keith gulp nervously, worried that another, much more violent fight was about to break out. They couldn't afford to be discovered so close to the prison, especially after telling Cesar's board that they all would be returning to the Castle to await the outcome of Lance's trial. Their intentions would be obvious. 

"I never should have told you about her," Sano hissed through gritted teeth. 

"Oh yeah?" Baki chuckled, looking not at all bothered by the obvious animosity directed at him. "But then I wouldn't be able to tell you that the Blue Paladin saved her."

Any and all anger seemed to physically drop out of Sano's body; his limbs went lax, expression hollow. He looked entirely stunned, before both suspicion and relief mingled on his features. "How?"

"Are the details really that important?" Baki immediately barked back, impatient. "I'm kinda on a schedule here. I'll tell you all about it later. Just tell me where they put the Blue Paladin. You owe him, so if not for me, do it for him."

Sano still looked suspicious, but more than anyone he seemed aware of the fact that Baki wasn't lying. The guy was sleazy and morally ambiguous, but at least he wouldn't so bluntly distort the truth to achieve his goals. At least not much. "They put him in one of the containment cells."

Keith couldn't see Baki's face or his reaction, but the silence that followed was almost deafening. A silent Baki could not be a good thing. 

"Which block?"

"B–1"

Nodding, Baki made to leave, but was stopped by Sano grabbing his shoulder and turning him back around to face him.

"What about my sister?"

A quiet chuckle left the other alpha. "We'll talk about that later, Mr. Redoubled Agent." With that Baki walked away, leaving behind Sano, whose face was displaying a myriad of emotions: annoyance, anger, trepidation. But most of all, hope.

Baki returned to Shiro and Keith as he straightened out his jacket, looking as calm as ever when he took Sano's gun from Keith's hands. "That was the last bit of information I needed. If you're ready, we can start."

Shiro nodded silently, looking unsure of how to respond exactly, but eventually he seemed to regain his composure. "We're ready." Him and Keith followed the Velonian as he strode back towards the vehicle they had arrived in. 

From there, it only took a few minutes until both Shiro and Keith were decked out in the standard guard uniform, white armour plates over grey under armour; Baki even gave them guns. They didn't ask where he got all this stuff from; he wouldn't tell them anyway. A downside to Baki being relatively honest was that if he didn't want to divulge information, instead of lying or being vague, he would simply not answer at all, masterfully dodging the question without ever giving anything useful away.

"Are you ever gonna tell us what you're planning?" Keith eventually questioned, sick of having to wordlessly follow Baki around without really knowing the use of anything they were doing. "We're headed straight for the prison, aren't we? What're we gonna do there? Just waltz in there and get Lance?"

Shiro watched the exchange cautiously, a hint of concern in his eyes. But he didn't stop Keith.

"You'll see." Baki simply smirked, not providing answers to any of Keith's questions, eliciting a frustrated sigh from the Red Paladin.

After a few minutes of walking, they finally arrived at the front gates of the large prison complex. The guards didn't even give them so much as a glance, as though Baki going to and from the prison flanked by guards was an everyday occurrence. Keith nervously scanned his surroundings, trying his hardest to identify possible threats. But aside from a shitload of cameras, there really wasn't much that looked threatening. He would have expected the place to be much more heavily guarded. Perhaps the inside would be different. 

"Don't say a word, even if someone asks you a question," Baki suddenly ordered. "Just nod or shake your head."

"Why?" Keith immediately replied, still suspicious of this entire affair, specifically Baki. Who even knew what he was getting them all into?

"Just let me do my thing, okay? Trust me and Lance will be back with you in one piece."

A slew of comebacks sat at the tip of Keith's tongue, but he swallowed them all down. "Why would you go this far?" He really should have expected to be answered in form of an amused smirk.

"Having Voltron owe me a favour sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me."

Was that really it? "But… I mean–"

"And annoying Cesar is fun." 

That left Keith speechless. He couldn't figure out the nature of Baki's and Cesar's relationship. They were two vastly different people, with seemingly nothing in common. On first glance, at least. And yet there was some kind of inexplicable connection between them.

Before Keith was even able to process the words properly and come up with a response, they stopped at a reception type area, Baki leaning on a counter to chat up a clerk-looking Velonian.

"I wanna see one of the prisoners," he said in a smooth, low voice, not even greeting the receptionist.  

There seemed to be some sort of double meaning behind his words, because the receptionist rolled his eyes and sighed. "What's it this time? An alpha again? You know that's _really_ illegal."

"No, just an omega."

"Even so, you're still breaking quite a few laws here, Mr. Minister of Defence."

Baki simply chuckled, making this seem like idle small talk. Which it apparently actually was. "It's the new arrival in B–1."

Sighing defeatedly again, the receptionist typed around on some sort of device, the yellow glare from a holographic monitor hitting his face. Suddenly, a look of shock and surprise spread on his features. "That one's in a containment cell. You sure you want that after–"

"Positive," Baki immediately cut in. "Just gimme the keys. I have guards with me."

The guy's eyes flicked to said _guards_ , before he slowly shrugged. "If you say so…" The Velonian opened something under his desk, before handing Baki a key card of sorts.

As soon as the card ended up in his hand, Baki began grinning. "I owe you."

"As usual."

Baki turned to leave down a long hallway, Shiro and Keith following him silently. Keith couldn't help but stare holes into the guy's skull, thoughts racing at all the implications of the exchange he had just witnessed. If what he was thinking was actually true, then Baki was turning out to be an even bigger scumbag than he had thought.

The Velonian seemed to notice the unsubtle glaring, because he suddenly turned his head to meet the Red Paladin's eyes. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

Baki's eyes then left Keith's, his head turning to face forward again. "Like I'm a sleazeball."

"You aren't?"

"Hey, I just give people options," he argued, throwing up his arms in a defensive manner. "If they take me up on my offers, that's their decision. It's a mutually beneficial type of thing."

"Sure…" Keith really didn't want to even consider the possibility that Baki wasn't the only one taking advantage of people that had no choice, no freedom and no way to really refuse any offers.

Their trip to where Lance was seemed endless. They walked down long hallways, passed through large domed halls, wandered from prison block to prison block. It took a while before they even came by any cells. And once they did, Keith realised why there weren't many guards around: the doors were thick, too thick even for one of their lions to bust through easily with their lasers. They were all framed by intricate machinery, thick cables and things Keith didn't even know the purpose of. All he knew was that he didn't want to even breathe on any of these flashing devices. They were mostly silent, but whenever they passed by a cell, lights would flash up red, blinking incessantly and buzzing until they were far enough away again. Keith gulped, understanding now why Baki was approaching this the way he was. Without the key that he had easily obtained, they wouldn't even have been able to open the door of Lance's cell, let alone find it in the first place. Keith suddenly doubted that even Pidge could hack into this system without being detected. 

Keith could feel a shudder run through his entire body when they walked towards another block, this one much taller and imposing than any they had been in before. Immediately, he knew this was where Lance was. There were no windows and the architecture made it look oddly off-putting and bizarre. Like it had been warped and twisted, with impossible roofs and overly angular corners. It was in line with a lot of Velonian architecture, but something about it seemed off. 

Walking in didn't make Keith feel any better. The walls were too close, the light artificial and sickening, dead silence seeming to permeate the entire building. Determined to not let the atmosphere get to him, he focused on Baki walking in front of him, reassuring himself by occasionally glancing at Shiro. He couldn't put a finger on why this place creeped him out so badly. Keith usually wasn't one to get _bad vibes_ from anything. But looking at Shiro and seeing the slight frown on his face deepening the further in they went, he realised that it wasn't just him feeling weird.

It was odd that no sound came from any of the cells. Keith hadn't been in a prison before, but he had always imagined them being deafeningly loud, with prisoners arguing, guards shouting and bars being hit. At least that was what he had seen in movies. But this was somehow worse; this dead silence, as though no one was there. He couldn't tell what was behind these cell doors, whether the cells were empty or not. What state the prisoners were in. 

Baki suddenly stopped in his tracks and sniffed the air. Almost immediately, one of his arms shot up to cover his nose and mouth. "Well, that's unpleasant."

"What is?" Keith asked, unable to detect the slightest trace of a smell. 

The Velonian's expression was unreadable when he turned towards the paladins. He simply stared at the two for a long time, wordlessly eyeing them. "Do you know what happens when you lock a couple hungry animals in a room together and leave them for a while?"

Both Keith and Shiro stayed silent, tensing up at the odd edge to Baki's voice.

"They kill each other until only one is left." Baki stayed rooted in place for a moment longer, eyes trained on a specific cell door. Eventually, he turned his focus back towards the two paladins. "Wait here. Don't move from that spot unless you want to be scarred for life."

Keith wanted to protest. He doubted every word that came out of Baki's mouth. But this time, this one time, he had the urge to _listen_ to him. He wasn't sure what would be behind that door and somehow he knew he would regret seeing it for himself.

And so he watched as the Velonian strode away, his steps echoing ominously in the otherwise silent hallway. Keith gulped when Baki stopped in front of a cell, pulling out the key card to unlock it. It beeped several times, lights flashing up and something whirring loudly inside the door; Keith could feel the vibrations of it through his feet. It took a moment, but eventually there was a click and a longer beep that seemed to signal the unlocking of the door. Even Baki seemed hesitant to open the door, standing there motionless with his hand on the handle. 

A loud grating sound reverberated through the hallway when the door finally did creak open. Bright light shone out from inside and before Baki had even fully opened the door, something slumped out of the room and dropped before his feet with a wet thud. 

Keith wasn't even sure what it was until he made out a face. Or what was left of it. If his stomach had been full, he probably would have thrown up whatever he had eaten. Instead, he simply struggled to suppress gags. 

He wasn't entirely sure what triggered it. Baki had looked disturbed to say the least. Angry, frustrated, disappointed. A multitude of emotions had all flashed across his face, settling into a hard to read expression. And before Keith knew it, he had run up to him and was peering into the cell himself. Immediately, he wished he hadn't.

Blood was splattered on the once white walls, prisoners laid in pools of blood, some of it their own, some of it mingling with that of others. Keith wasn't even sure what he was looking at most of the time. Some prisoners were slumped in corners, motionless, some of them were piled on top of each other. The room was barely large enough for four people, let alone six. They had all been mutilated in some way. Limbs missing, stomachs cut open, heads bashed in. Bits and pieces were strewn around the room and Keith was trying his hardest not to think about what those were.

Hands suddenly wrapped around Keith's shoulders, pulling him away from the scene. It was Shiro. Keith finally noticed Baki staring inside the cell with a mix of genuine rage and frustration, fists clenched.

"He's gone."

* * *

"What do you mean _Lance wasn't there_?" Hunk yelled, eyes unusually fiery. "If he's not in that prison, then where is he?!"

"That's what we're trying to find out," Shiro tried to soothe him, looking beyond exhausted, face pale. Allura placed a hand on his shoulder, silently urging him to rest. But he waved her off. "The main issue here is that Lance couldn't have escaped on his own, meaning he was taken. And considering Cesar's reputation, he's the most likely to have kidnapped him for whatever reason."

"What does Cesar want from Lance?" Pidge immediately asked. "I get that he's valuable as a paladin, but why stage that whole trial thing?"

Baki was sitting at his desk and furiously rubbing his eyes. Clearly, this entire situation was stressing him out enough that he was actually showing it. For once, he was at a loss. "I warned Lance of Cesar being a mad scientist that would try to dissect him to explore the way humans work. I didn't think Cesar would _actually_ do that to a paladin though." 

"So you're saying–" Keith interrupted himself, struggling to put words to his thoughts. "Why would he go this far just to– I dunno… get _tissue_ _samples_ of Lance?!"

"He wouldn't," Baki immediately countered. "Cesar is insane, but not like _that_. The costs and benefits don't line up if you look at it that way. Something else is going on here."

"Well, what is it?" Allura had finally dropped some of her animosity towards the Velonian. After all, he had legitimately risked his own safety to help them out. But she still wasn't keen on dealing with him.

"I have a hunch."

Rolling her eyes, Allura crossed her arms. "Let me guess: you're not going to tell us."

"You know me too well, Princess."

The room then fell silent. The entire team was at a loss, unable to really decide what to do from here. Lance being in prison had been their first real lead. Now they were practically back to square one. Adding to that the fact that Baki, Shiro and Keith all refused to tell anybody about what exactly had happened in the prison, there now was a much more urgent sense of unease.

The silence was abruptly broken by a beeping sound, Baki glancing down at a small flashing device. Without a word, he suddenly pushed something beneath his desk, which caused a monitor on a wall to flash up. It was silent, the volume turned all the way down, but even without any sound, everyone knew what they were seeing.

It was Lance. Hair messy, eyes unfocused and looking at nothing in particular. It was hard to tell what he was feeling or thinking about, his empty expression unreadable. Blood stuck to almost every inch of his body; like he had been dunked in it. A message endlessly rolled past below his image, over and over again: _Alien breaks out of prison. Kills fellow inmates in bloody massacre. Whereabouts unknown. Beware!_

"For fuck's sake," Keith cursed under his breath. Over the course of their stay in Velanos, he had developed a tick of sorts: even when seated, his leg would constantly shake and stomp the floor, as though trying to break the very ground he stood on. 

"Is this what you were trying to hide?" Allura suddenly spoke up, both anger and sadness mingling in her cyan eyes. "That Lance–"

"No!" Keith had jumped out of his seat and marched up to Allura within almost a split second. "We saw the inside of his cell and it just… just…"

Shiro gently pushed Keith away from Allura, still trying his best to stay calm, but he couldn't quite mask the anxiety bubbling under the surface. "We still haven't finished processing it ourselves. It… wasn't a pretty sight and I'd rather not recall any of it, much less tell you anything about it."

"It's true then?" Allura looked to be having trouble forming the words, as though they felt foreign in her mouth, like they didn't quite slot together properly. "Lance… slaughtered the other inmates?" 

Keith was about to argue again, when Hunk suddenly raised his voice. 

"Why's there so much blood around his mouth?" he asked shakily, voice uncharacteristically low and fearful. His eyes were glued to the monitor where Lance's face was still being displayed. "Why…"

Pidge placed a soothing hand on the Yellow Paladin's arm, eyes just as cloudy with pain. 

A sudden sharp sigh broke the moment of tense silence, causing the team to focus back on Baki, who was leaning back into his chair. He looked exhausted. "I'm disappointed." He tiredly rubbed over his eyes. "Seeing Voltron have this kind of shitty sense of unity makes me rethink whether this deal was really worth it."

"Excuse me?" Allura spat, angry tension taking over her body.

Baki fixed her with an almost bored look. "Do humans and Alteans all doubt their own this easily? One news report and already you're doubting everything you know about him? It's disappointing. If I were Lance, I would never want to return to this kind of bullshit team."

"You–" Keith's assault was stopped by both Hunk and Shiro grabbing him, preventing him from jumping at the Velonian over his desk. "We _know_ Lance would never do anything like this!" he roared, not even noticing his teammates restraining him. "And even if he did kill anyone, it was out of self defence! We're no peace fighters! We're in the middle of a _war_ and it wouldn't be the first time that any of us offed someone!"

"You say that, but it's pretty obvious that you're doubting him." Nothing Keith ever said seemed to affect Baki. 

Almost instantly, Hunk was matching Keith's level of agitation, his eyes turning venomous. "We're going to get him, with or without your help."

In response, Baki released an exasperated sigh. "I told you I have a hunch, didn't I?" He waited until both Hunk and Keith seemed to settle down, both heavily dropping into chairs and couches with their arms crossed. "We need to go about this carefully. If anyone finds out that you're coming to my office for _personal chats_ , I won't be able to help you anymore. And I'm not going to take the fall for any of this."

Allura, who had her stoic gaze trained on the floor, glanced up to meet Baki's eyes. "We're well aware of that."

* * *

Lance felt like he was floating, mind blissfully empty, no sound or sensation reaching him. Nothing mattered, nothing was happening. It was simply dark with brief flashes of colour. Inexplicably, the smell of old books and clean hospitals mingled in his nose.

Then suddenly, pain hit him. Unbearable, searing hot pain. It consumed his entire body, setting all his nerves on fire. His scream echoed oddly. 

"Finally awake, I see."

The voice barely made it through to Lance, the paladin too busy trying to somehow escape this pain. But he couldn't.

"You were unconscious for longer than I anticipated." 

Finally willing himself to quiet down, Lance peeled an eye open to survey his surroundings. He was strapped to a cold metal table of sorts, gleaming blue shackles restraining all his limbs. They buzzed and vibrated whenever he moved. Cautiously, he took a look at where the voice had come from and with some trouble, could make out a familiar figure in front of a sickly green background. _Cesar_. 

Memories flooded back into Lance's mind, fragmented images and sounds swirling around his head. He remembered desperately clinging to life, doing anything in his power to somehow survive in that cell. At some point he had lost conscious perception of his surroundings, simply acting but not processing, not a single clear memory existing anywhere in his mind. Perhaps it was better that way. 

All of a sudden, the prison cell's door had clicked and vibrated, humming open. And almost immediately, Lance watched numbly as the hands clinging to his body fell away, the head buried in his neck dropping to the floor. Within mere seconds, more blood painted the already glistening red-stained walls like an abstract painting.    

"You killed everyone," Lance whispered, voice hoarse and weak. 

"You are quite welcome." A chuckle rippled from Cesar's chest, a low, unsettling sound. 

Lance wished he could have protested, told Cesar to _fuck off_ , that he was a monster and that as a part of Voltron, Lance would see to it that justice would be served and that he would be punished for his crimes. But he couldn't. They both knew it would be a complete lie. It killed Lance to think that in just a day, something in him had been changed, twisted, distorted to the point that he _revelled_ in the death of others, innerly _cheered_ that those Velonians were all dead for good and would never come back. 

"Humans seem relatively similar to us in their basic anatomical makeup," Cesar suddenly said, sounding like he was talking more to himself than Lance. Calmly, the Velonian sifted through a book, eyes either focused or bored. It was hard to tell. 

Gulping, Lance had to swallow down more sounds of pain, struggling to keep a straight face. Feeling like he had been run over by a bus and then mauled by a pack of rabid dogs really didn't help in the composure department. "You're really gonna pull the mad scientist spiel and dissect me?" he forced out through clenched teeth. "Well, good luck with that. I'm a pretty lanky dude and hopped up on Hunk's weird space desserts 24/7. Not exactly a shining example of health."

"Are you implying that samples taken from you would not be representative of your population?" 

Lance quizzically blinked at the Velonian for a moment. "Um… yeah?"

"Hm…" Cesar suddenly disappeared. 

Lance couldn't quite see what Cesar was doing, only able to hear him shuffling around somewhere. It sounded like he was using some sort of device, a steady beeping sounding along with his actions. Suddenly, he returned to where Lance could see him again. "Only three reports on human anatomy exist in our vast collection and they seem quite old. _Barbaric_ , even." Something like genuine disgust mingled into his usually neutral expression. "I cannot believe humans resorted to physically cutting patients open to treat them." He seemed lost in thought for a moment, eyes trained on some specific page in one of the books. "Is this document accurate in proposing that piercing your frontal lobe and damaging some of the tissue will all but eliminate your personality?"

 _Frontal lo…? Oh shit…_ "Yeah, pretty sure that'll do a lot of other stuff too."

"Oh, such as?"

 _Lance, you've seen at least one YouTube video about lobotomies, COME ON!_ "Um… uh… so uh… humans have empathy, right? The frontal lobe is the centre of that, so uh… damaging it will make me an asshole psychopath basically." 

Cesar simply let out a little hum in response. "And severing this so called… _corpus callosum_?

 _Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit._ "Bad for your sight, really bad. You just go blind." It took a lot of will power to not wince in pain, Lance's head feeling like it would split open any second.

Another hum. "This Broca's area seems very small. Would it affect you significantly if I removed and kept it for later research?"

"Pretty sure I need that. For… smelling."

"How unfortunate."

 _Does he know I'm just bullshitting at this point?_ Lance was sweating, anxious that Cesar could see through everything, that he was just playing along, _teasing_ him.

"Still, that all sounds most interesting."

Lance gulped.

"I do want to keep at least a few samples of human tissue. There must be organs that you can part with for the sake of research."

Lance had a hard time believing that Cesar was asking for permission. And if he was gonna get out of this alive, he most likely wouldn't do so with all his organs intact. He had no choice in this manner and he had a feeling that he shouldn't cross Cesar in this situation in any way. It was obvious who had the upper hand here. Rather than have the guy poke around his intestines randomly cutting stuff out, he should at least try to keep him from doing too much damage. "I… I can live without a kidney… and my appendix. And I think livers grow back if you cut a bit off." _Shit, wait, they do, right? Livers grow back, right?!_

"I see…" Calmly, Cesar turned away to tap around on some device again. 

Lance flinched when a row of lights flashed up on the ceiling above him, something whirring and screaming like a chainsaw. And– Was that thing coming towards him?! "Uuuhm… what's that? You're not gonna um… laser me to death or something, right? Is this turning into Saw? Are you gonna put a silly death trap on my head? Cause I'm not here for that life."

"I will be removing your organs."

Before Lance ever got the chance to bust out more witty comebacks, the large spider-like device pointing at him began rotating. Almost immediately, more pain hit him, like a red hot spear was being thrust through his intestines. He screamed, throat exploding with pain immediately. 

"Oh…" 

Even though the device seemed to come to a stop, the pain lessened only slightly. Lance lost sense of his body, pain the only sensation he could feel at all.  

"I suppose our method of extraction will not work on humans," Cesar mused, mumbling to himself like he hadn't almost burned a hole through the Blue Paladin. "How inconvenient." Again, more typing. "Might as well try the human method."

Lance was only starting to regain some semblance of conscious thought, his breathing beginning to become steadier again. "What…" Still panting, he could barely string together a full sentence. "What method?"

"Physical surgery."

"Hey, wait!" Lance could see Cesar preparing what had to be a syringe. It looked a bit odd, weirdly twisted and glowing, but the needle was unmistakable. "I'm really bad with needles, so maybe– FUCK!" Cesar had simply jammed the needle into his arm, disregarding the chain of curses the paladin spat out in response. Whatever was coursing through his veins now felt like ignited fuel ripping through his body, setting everything it came across on fire. 

"If my theory is correct…" Cesar inquisitively stared at the syringe once its contents had been emptied into Lance's body, "that should block transmissions at your neuromuscular junctions. I will be able to work in peace."

Already, Lance could feel his muscles stop responding, his body slowly disconnecting from his mind. "What… What's happening? This doesn't… feel right." Lance knew what general anaesthesia was like. He had gotten completely knocked out for an endoscopy once. One moment he had been fully awake and only seconds later, he had been completely out cold. This was different. Why couldn't he move? Why was he still awake? Why did it hurt so much?

"You should not be moving while I do any incisions."

"B-But I can still… still _feel_ everything."

"And?"

Lance had a quip ready, but he couldn't get it out in time before even his jaw stopped moving according to his will. His entire head remained still no matter how much he tried to move it. All he could do now was peek through slowly shutting eyelids and listen as Cesar pulled out utensil after utensil from some cupboard. His heart began racing, sweat running down his face. He desperately wished he could reach up a hand and wipe it away. It felt disgusting. 

For a while, there was nothing but the clinking of metal against metal, fluids being jostled around, devices buzzing and whirring all around him. The fear of what Lance knew was about to happen was unbearable. He was trapped in his own body, unable to do anything to prevent feeling scalpels slice through his body. He so desperately wanted to just be back in the Castle and eat Coran's weird food goo and goof around with Hunk, maybe tease Keith a little. Were they on Velanos by now? They should be, right? It had been a long time since he had talked to Coran. What was his team doing? Why hadn't they found him yet?

Were they going to find him at all?

It seemed like Cesar could still read his mind somehow. "Your team arrived some time ago," he suddenly said, pressing a sharp scalpel to the paladin's bare stomach; only a thin cloth covered him otherwise. "They seemed very displeased at the news of your alliance with a known terrorist group. Adding to that the massacre that happened in your prison cell, they are quite upset at the moment." 

Lance wanted to yell, demand answers to his many questions. But he couldn't and it killed him. 

"It seems like they have abandoned their quest to recover you. They have been informed of your trial in the morning and since they have made no move to retrieve you, I suppose they will be searching for a new paladin for the Blue Lion."

Cesar made the first incision at the same time something inside Lance broke apart and died. He almost didn't feel the pain, mind too occupied with the thought that he had been abandoned. Two voices were warring in his head: one telling him that his team would never just discard him like that, the other, much louder one insisting that he was the weakest link, that he was a complete failure as a paladin and that it really wouldn't be worth their time to come after him. Why would they? He had started this mess of a situation himself and involved them in it against all common sense. His stupidity had gotten several people killed. This entire quest for self confirmation had resulted in so much needless pain and suffering that he almost wished his team wouldn't come for him. 

Perhaps this was his punishment. To be dissected by some lunatic alien, trapped and unable to even pretend to be a smug badass. 

Lance finally felt the pain when Cesar hit some kind of layer of tissue that sent white hot fire through his entire system. His vision went black and for a second, he felt relief at falling unconscious, but then he saw that goddamn ceiling again through a tiny crack in his eyelids and he could _still_ feel everything. He could feel fingers poking into the incision, past his skin and into his intestines. The wet squelching of Cesar poking around in his insides usually would have made him vomit, but he couldn't even do that in his current state. 

The pain was indescribable. It was so overwhelming that he had the urge to hurt himself just to have a distraction from this particular pain. Maybe chop off a finger or shoot himself in the leg. At least then he could forget about the stabbing pain of his intestines being roamed around in. 

Just how long would he be able to take this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, new chapter will be up next Friday. 
> 
> I appreciate all the feedback! I'm still surprised at how much other people also enjoy Lance getting himself into deeper and deeper shit.


	6. Unresponsiveness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for more gore. Added the usual underlined warnings for anyone who wants to skip.

Shiro watched as his team dispersed, everyone retreating to their respective rooms looking dejected and tired. Baki had left, off to investigate his so-called _hunch_. There was nothing left to do for Team Voltron but to wait patiently. _Again_. It both infuriated and saddened them, to be so close to Lance, yet unable to help him in any way. 

Letting out a sigh, Shiro ended up wandering to Keith's door. He softly rapped on the intricately decorated door made out of some sort of light marble-like material. Once he heard a muffled "It's open", he entered the room and let the door fall shut behind him with a soft, electric hum. He had to let his eyes roam around the room before he finally found Keith standing on the balcony. A breeze ruffled Shiro's hair when he pushed through the slightly ajar balcony doors to join him, Keith not even turning from where he stood leaning on the railing. "You doing okay?"

Keith seemed reluctant to speak, turning away his face so Shiro couldn't see his expression. "Aside from this headache stabbing my skull from the inside out, _peachy_."

The words made Shiro touch his fingers to his temples, where a stabbing pain was torturing his head as well. 

"It's the Blue Lion," Keith suddenly murmured, voice tense. "Something's happening to Lance _right now_ and his lion is desperate to help him." 

"I know," Shiro sighed, carefully leaning on the railing as well.

"We need to get it." There was a certain heat to Keith's tone, his eyes burning with determination. 

In response, Shiro's expression turned pinched, sorrowful. "We can't, Keith. Not before we get Lance."

"If we free Blue, it can find Lance!" Keith snapped, heated eyes finally meeting Shiro's sombre ones. "We're not getting anywhere like this! We can't just keep sitting around and wait for some alien guy to help us! I don't know what kinda weird devices they're using to restrain his lion, but we need to do _something_!" 

"Usually, I would agree with you." Shiro had put on his leader voice. No longer were his eyes kind and understanding, now they were stern. "I already explained this earlier, but this isn't like our usual missions. This isn't the type of situation where we can solve everything by forming Voltron and beating up the bad guys. This isn't a simple rescue mission, it's also a delicate diplomatic matter. The people of Velanos are a neutral party, neither enemies or allies, so attacking them would be as good as declaring war against the entire planet. It could drive them to side with the Galra and that's the last thing we need right now. Everything needs to be handled in such a way that it can't be misconstrued as an attack of any kind. You've seen what they're doing with the little bit of footage they have of Lance. That was clearly a power move to warn us against acting out… among other things."

The words seemed to resonate with Keith, because the teen finally settled down, shoulders tense as he let out a sharp sigh. "I just… I can't sit still."

"I know," Shiro replied quietly, back to being more like his usual, warm-hearted self. "I want to get the lions and bust out Lance as much as everyone else, but doing that could get us all into even more trouble."

"So we're abandoning Lance?" Keith suddenly hissed, hands clenching around the railing.

"No! That's not what I meant!" Shiro ran a hand through his bangs, frustrated. "It's just– We need to be careful, is all. We can't make any hasty moves. It could put Lance in even more danger."

An annoyed groan left Keith, who dropped his head, clearly understanding Shiro's logic. "He's not gonna die… is he?"

Shiro didn't answer.

"He isn't! He isn't gonna die!" Keith finally looked up, locking eyes with Shiro's solemn ones. "He can't." Only when he saw his friend nod slightly, did Keith breathe a sigh of relief. The tension left his body, leaving him feeling even more exhausted than before. How long had it been since he had slept? How long had it been since _any_ of them had slept? Had Lance been able to sleep at any point? "Is this my fault?"

"What?"

Gulping, Keith thought back to his fight with Lance. Or rather, the relatively one-sided verbal and physical lashing. "I got mad when you were hurt and I took it out on Lance. It kinda _was_ his fault after all, you know. We weren't sure yet if you were even gonna make it, so I just… I said some things I shouldn't have."

Shiro simply eyed Keith for a moment, eventually staring back out at the city of Persia spread out below them, every single building gleaming and shining with light. "You couldn't–"

" _–have known that this would happen_. I _know_. I'm not a mindreader. But you have to admit that none of us would be here right now if I hadn't yelled at Lance about how worthless and talentless I thought he was. I told him that _he_ should have…" Keith trailed off, a wave of shame washing over him when he remembered his exact words and the hurt look they had caused in Lance's eyes. Shiro seemed to understand anyway.

"Like everyone on this team, Lance has his personal issues," Shiro eventually said in a soft voice. "They would have eventually come up one way or the other, regardless of what anyone else does. So I _don't_ think you are responsible for any of this. Yes, you and what you said may have been a factor, but Lance wouldn't have gone out on his own if he hadn't already been upset in some way. Don't blame yourself for someone else's decisions."

Staring into Shiro's warm eyes, Keith eventually caved and let himself relax again. "Okay." 

In response Shiro stared down into the city for a long time, a comfortable silence settling between the two. It didn't last long though, because eventually, Shiro's eyes fell on Keith's broody expression, causing a thin smile to widen on his face. A moment later, Keith had to swat Shiro's hand away when he suddenly ruffled his hair and grinned at his dismay. But soon enough, they were forced to leave when their headaches became too unbearable to think properly. 

Eventually, they both retreated to their rooms still feeling powerless and small.

* * *

With both his older brother and sister having had to get their appendix removed in their late teens, Lance had always known that any day he could wake up with a stabbing pain in his abdomen, having to be rushed to the hospital like they had. Both times had freaked the entire family out, his brother suddenly waking up crying in pain, while his sister had ended up on the floor whimpering as she held her stomach. To say it made him nervous would be an understatement. Lance was determined to be vigilant, to not let appendicitis go far enough that the pain woke him up in the middle of the night. He swore to himself that he would catch it immediately and have his appendix removed without much hassle. 

Good news is, he _was_ getting his appendix removed before appendicitis could really hit him.  Bad news is, he could feel his appendix being pulled out through a hole in his stomach. He could hear the wet sound of it squishing out from between his other organs, feel how warm it was as it left his body. Then there was the pain…

It had taken on entirely new dimensions; a never ending torture. He was dying and he couldn't run or fight or even scream, his eyes forced shut and drowning him in darkness. It felt as though the world around him had shrunk to this tiny space surrounding him and this constant ache. Like he was inside a dark crypt and the rest of the world had simply disappeared. Nothing else but this space existed. Nothing but this anguish mattered. He wasn't Lance, or a paladin, or even a fighter pilot. He was simply in pain. 

A wet thud sounded when Cesar dropped his appendix somewhere, surely to be further researched later on. He fiddled around with his tools for a while, barely giving Lance any time to recover in any way, before returning to sew the incision shut. The needle poking into his skin wasn't even that painful at this point. It was almost a relief, a break from this torture.

Dread suddenly filled up his mind when Lance heard the mechanical buzzing of a large device sometime later. It seemed to stop somewhere above him, shining a bright light on him that he could see through his shut eyelids. 

Then the cutting and poking started again. Compared to having his appendix removed, this didn't feel as bad. At first. Cesar made small incisions, prodding them open so he could stick needles and tubes and whatnot inside. Lance wasn't even sure. He was already in so much pain that it didn't matter if he was poked with a needle or a pole; it wouldn't have made a difference either way. At least, until Cesar actually did shove what felt like poles into his stomach. They stretched the incisions even further. Then they suddenly moved _inside_ of him and that damn near sent Lance over the edge. More white hot pain blasted through his guts, his vision going completely black with not even the slightest bit of light reaching him anymore.  His hearing cut out, leaving him completely alone with the searing pain. 

Time lost its meaning entirely. It honestly felt like days passed simply laying there while things poked around inside of him, cutting tissue, clamping off veins and pushing organs out of the way. Tears kept streaming from his shut eyes. It was a small comfort, a reminder that he still could somehow express himself, even if no one would acknowledge it. 

Eternity then seemed less inexplicable to him.

Suddenly, there wasn't enough air. Lance could feel himself slowly suffocating, his energy dwindling with every second. He grew tired, the pain finally fading. He mentally breathed a sigh of relief, at last entering blissful nothingness. Whether it was unconsciousness, coma or death greeting him, he honestly didn't care. He would accept anything to get out of this hell.

Then a sudden rush. His heart began racing, almost jumping out of his chest like it was in a race to a distant planet. Sweat formed all over his body almost instantly, his skin exploding with heat. 

"Your heart stopped," Cesar's muffled and distorted voice explained. He sounded so far away, even though he was probably standing right next to Lance. "Don't worry, I injected you with a dose of what you call _epinephrine_. Or _adrenaline_." He huffed out a dry laugh, like something about the names was silly. "I need you alive after all."

The words made no sense to Lance. They reached his ears, his brain, but somewhere there was a disconnect. He couldn't process anything that his dulled senses were desperately trying to convey to his mind.

Eternity then continued. Just as it had been. Just as it always will.

Every second felt like a lifetime, every minute like the rest of time. Lance almost physically felt something snap in his mind at some point. He wasn't entirely sure what it was. Perhaps his sanity, perhaps his grip on reality. Was this pain even real anymore? Had he died after all and this was hell?

For a long time, he was simply drifting in and out of conscious thought, mind never staying in one place, the pain the only constant. He didn't even realise the sutures were done until Cesar had been gone a long time. Had it been ten minutes? Ten hours? He wasn't sure. 

At least the pain was beginning to reach a level Lance could somehow put words to: like all his nerve endings were testicles and they were being punched by a boxer many, _many_ times a second. Some of his senses were finally coming back to him. His hearing sharpened enough that he could hear the electric humming of the room again, as well as Cesar's muffled voice. By the sound of it, he was away in another room. 

Then, something miraculous happened. Lance could make his finger twitch slightly! Immediately, a rush of endorphins blasted through his entire system, making him almost drunk on euphoria. He was eager to just get up and leave, return to his team, finally leave this goddamn planet, never to come back. But then his rational mind kicked in and he had to reason with himself. It wouldn't be wise to attempt to run the second he could move a little. More than likely, he would just stumble and Cesar would inject him with more drugs to paralyse him again. He had to be more careful. 

Lance's heart stuttered when Cesar appeared at his side. Lance tried to be inconspicuous when he cracked his eye open slightly, just enough to see the fuzzy outline of the Velonian's figure next to him. He was eyeing tools of some kind, turning them over in his hands, head sometimes shifting towards Lance like he was studying him. Silently, he picked up something metallic and thin-sounding, approaching Lance even further. He got close enough that the paladin could hear him breathing on him. Oddly slow. Flat. Not at all human. 

"I suppose human bodies are too fragile for several consecutive surgeries," Cesar suddenly mumbled to himself. Even through the hazy darkness of his own eyelids, Lance could see his amber eyes gleaming as they stared down at him like he was a frog in biology class. "The hepatectomy will have to wait until tomorrow morning."

Despite his words, Cesar got even closer instead of leaving. Lance couldn't see exactly what he was doing, but he suddenly heard a metallic snipping sound from the top of his head. _Is he cutting my hair?!_

After another minute, an ice-cold hand grasped Lance's chin, turning his head from side to side. As though he was livestock being inspected. His heart jumped when his eyelids were suddenly forced open. He desperately stared straight ahead, fearing Cesar would be able to tell he could move again otherwise. Were his eyeballs meant to be paralysed too?

Cesar didn't seem to notice anything off, humming to himself before he continued whatever he was doing. At some point, he looked at the inside of Lance's mouth, pushing open his jaw and sticking his fingers in his mouth. Lance had to suppress the urge to gag, especially when his tongue was grabbed and forcefully pulled out of his mouth. Cesar seemed to find something interesting, because he suddenly left again in an almost eager way. It was no surprise to Lance when he came back, yet again, with some kind of tool. 

Lance's heart dropped as soon as he felt something like pliers close around one of his molars. They first pulled straight up, which only served to pull his head along. A hand then settled on his damp forehead, keeping his entire head down as Cesar pulled in all directions, furiously twisting his tooth. The pain was gradual, coming in waves. It was bearable, compared to literally being sliced open; a tear still escaped from his eye, running down the side of his face and not deterring Cesar in the slightest.

There was an audible crack when his tooth came out. 

It hurt more the more time passed, pulsing and radiating until his entire head seemed to be throbbing. Then Cesar began inspecting him again, lifting and twisting his limbs, poking at his body. Occasionally, he would step away to scribble down notes or check his documents again. Eventually, he stopped at Lance's right hand. Somehow the paladin already knew what was going to happen. 

He almost wasn't surprised when another pair of pliers closed around the nail of his pointer finger. Immediately, he regretted not clipping his nails a couple days ago like he had planned. He liked to have his nails looking neat and taken care of, filed down to an acceptable length; not too short and not too long. Right now they were slightly too long, resulting in Cesar being able to easily grab at one with a tool. Suddenly, Lance wished he hadn't kicked his nail biting habit three years ago. 

Apparently having learned from his ordeal with Lance's tooth, Cesar firmly held his still limp hand, almost crushing his much slimmer fingers in his own. The pull was sudden and violent, pain immediately exploding where Lance's nail had just been. He could feel small droplets of blood dribbling down from his finger tip, falling to the floor silently before Cesar poured something on the wound. 

It stung. A _lot_. But at least whatever it was stopped the bleeding. 

With stinging pain shooting up to his shoulder like his entire finger had been stabbed through with a thick needle, it was the simple things Lance found comfort in: being able to actually open his eyes and see again, regaining his sense of reality after such a long time of drowsily slipping from awareness to chaos to confusion, control of his body gradually returning to him.   

A muffled buzzing noise interrupted the almost serene soundscape of quiet, electrical humming permeating the entire room. 

Cesar shifted next to him, suddenly speaking up in a firm voice. "Yes, I have him here," he said after a second, seemingly talking to someone. "Alive, yes." He paused, a low, muffled voice ringing out from whatever device he was using. "Tomorrow, most likely. I will have all the material I need for further research by then. It is a shame that I cannot keep the full sample here, but I understand this will resolve our _issues_?" More muffled talking, the voice on the other end sounding slightly aggravated. "These terms were decided on in agreement with your commanding officer. Ask him should you need further details." The conversation ended there, Cesar apparently having _hung up_ on whoever he had been talking to. His eyes then suddenly wandered to Lance's still form, turning inquisitive. "Galra," he spat. "Probably all alphas, the lot of them."

Lance had the impulse to clench his fist or at least blink, do _anything_ to make his presence known, but he squashed it down. For now, he would have to continue being treated as a mere science project.

"The entire Galra empire is precisely what happens when you let alphas govern. Do you understand now why we have to restrain them? Society would collapse under alpha rule. We do not need a repeat of that kind of ordeal."

It was surprising to hear something like genuine emotion flare up in Cesar's voice. For the longest time, Lance had doubted if the Velonian was even capable of emotion. Although, in hindsight, he wasn't quite sure if he should classify this flat, monotonous ranting as _emotion_.   

Whatever annoyance Cesar had felt seemed to just melt away, the Velonian going back to rifling through old parchments and books. "Surely, your eyeballs must grow back as well?"

That caused genuine panic to claw at Lance's chest, nearly suffocating him. He could hear the clinking of metal instruments again, sharp blades grazing against each other. Through the crack of his right eye, he could see Cesar approaching with two odd looking tools he couldn't even fathom the purpose of. One looked like a hook, the other like a scoop of sorts and–

That was when something in Lance finally snapped completely. 

He wasn't even entirely sure how he was moving his still decidedly paralysed body, but he _was_. He was shooting up and off the metal table, grabbing at a smaller table that was littered with an assortment of still bloody tools. Lance wasn't even entirely sure what he was holding when he jumped at Cesar. 

Suddenly, Lance found himself standing in front of the head scientist and mayor of Persia, thick, dark red blood slowly seeping from a wound in the Velonian's neck. In the paladin's hand there was a scalpel, dried blood still visibly clinging to its handle, fresh blood now soiling the blade as well. This was the blade Cesar had used to first cut his stomach open all that time ago. How long had it been?

In that moment, their eyes met. And for the first time since arriving on this more than strange planet, Lance felt like they were equals. No more pretences to create layers and layers of barriers, just two people staring into each other's worlds, unguarded and true. 

"Ah…" It was said with a tone of realisation, like in his moment of dying some kind of epiphany hit Cesar. He slumped, then dropped to the floor, blood forming a pool around his head.

Lance was immediately on his knees, his body not his own, disconnected from his mind. His hands were around Cesar's neck before he could even process anything, fingers clutching at the wound and trying to stop the steady flow of blood somehow. 

He was panicking, breaths coming in short, violent bursts. His bloodied hands shook violently around Cesar's neck, unshed tears blurring his vision. 

Muffled commotion, blending into the ringing of his ears. 

The room around him was dark despite the blinding lights directed at him from all sides. 

The darkness crept up on him, sliding over the cold tiled floors, through the pool of blood surrounding him on all sides. 

Like it was whispering to him, mocking him, seducing him. 

"Lance!"

It was the first thing to ring clear in his mind, the first sound to break through the commotion and the ringing and the darkness. 

When Lance finally tore his eyes away from the still body beneath him, his eyes connected with ones across the room, the dark gaze directed at him blooming with emotions, _alive._  

_Keith…_

The Red Paladin stood in the doorway, frozen in place as he stared at the scene in front of him. He looked… _shocked_ , to say the least.

Out of nowhere, something barrelled past Keith and almost sent him tumbling to the floor. Before Lance could even really process the fact that Keith was here for some reason, hands closed around his shaking ones.

"You can let go now." It was Hunk. Sweet, understanding Hunk. His best friend, his anchor. "He's dead. It's over. You're safe now."

The words didn't make sense to Lance at first. "Safe?" 

Hunk began to slowly remove each of Lance's fingers from around Cesar's neck, every single one stiff and cramped up, like he had been out in the cold and they had simply frozen that way. None of the blood transferred to Hunk's hands. It took Lance a moment to realise why that was. 

The blood on his hands was dry.

"How long…" he forced out, voice quiet and meek. Once his hands were free, he couldn't stop staring at them, the blood splattered over them dried in abstract, flowery patterns. 

"It doesn't matter," Hunk replied shakily, voice cracking. "Just…" He sniffled and embraced Lance in a bear hug, engulfing him in warmth and relief. 

Revelling in the comfort of his friend, Lance finally allowed himself to shed the tears that had been blurring his vision for who knows how long. They simply fell onto Hunk's armour and into the fabric underneath it, the larger paladin seemingly doing all the sobbing for both of them. Lance didn't have the energy left to even have a relieved outburst of any kind. He was tired. Even if this was some sort of hallucination, even if the chance existed that this was nothing but a postmortem figment of his imagination, he wanted to soak up as much of this warmth as possible. 

The last thing he remembered before the dark fuzz around his vision encompassed him entirely, was Keith still standing in that same spot in the door. Other figures had already entered the room along with Hunk, yet Keith still stood there, looking to not have moved even an inch. The unreadable emotion in his dark eyes burned themselves into Lance's mind before he finally let darkness wash over him. 

* * *

For the first time in two days, the Castle was peaceful. No grim strategic meetings, no rushing towards the hangar, no rummaging through files and files on Velonian culture to find even the tiniest shred of information that could help them somehow. It was peaceful, yet a certain tension still buzzed in the air at all times. Like the palpable electricity of still air before a storm.  

It was the middle of the night – at least in Earth hours –, mere hours after Team Voltron had finally rescued their Blue Paladin. The lights in the Castle were dimmed, most electronics on standby. It was quiet. Tranquil.

"Hey, Hunk," Pidge sighed, throwing something wrapped at the larger paladin while walking into the room. "Got you something to eat."

Hunk caught the little package with a hint of a smile. "Oh… thanks." He unwrapped it to reveal a sandwich-like snack, albeit the _bread_ was somewhat purple and the filling bright orange. No doubt something Coran had cooked up.

Pidge watched him eat for a moment, sitting down next to him and placing a laptop on top of crossed legs. Despite having the device right there, Pidge never made any move to actually turn it on. At some point, brown eyes wandered towards the large cryo-replenishers at the other end of the room, garish blue light shining out of the pods, two familiar figures floating inside. "You okay?"

"Hm?" Hunk hummed back absent-mindedly. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I mean…" Struggling to find the right words, Pidge shrugged. "We all saw what happened. We need to talk about it eventually."

Immediately, a frown took over Hunk's face. "Can't we just… be _happy_ that Lance is back? At least for now?"

Pidge held Hunk's heated gaze for only a few seconds, giving in eventually with a sigh. "Sure. It's not like I'm not happy, it's just… hard to feel completely relieved, you know. With everything that happened." 

Both of their heads shot up when the door suddenly slid open, revealing Keith, whose eyes immediately went wide as though he had been caught.

"Uh…" Frozen in place, Keith looked like he was struggling to decide between running away and staying in the door, almost as if coming in wasn't even an option anymore.

"You came to check on Lance and Shiro too?" Hunk asked, voice holding nothing but simple curiosity and kindness, which seemed to relax Keith.

"Um… yeah," the Red Paladin eventually admitted, hesitantly stepping inside, the door quietly sliding shut again behind him. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact with the other two. "How… you know… are they?"

Pidge glanced at the two unconscious paladins inside the cryo-replenishers for a second, before shrugging. "They're healing. Allura said they should both be out by morning."

Keith nodded silently, standing there uncertainly, before eventually sitting down next to the two. He seemed content simply sitting there staring down at the smooth surface of the floor.

Some time passed by like that, with Hunk eating, Keith staring at nothing and Pidge eventually turning the laptop on after all. They were all supposed to sleep and if Allura caught them hanging out here instead of sleeping, readying themselves for a new day, they would get a lecture no teacher of any calibre could rival. None of them were able to sleep though. Not after what they had seen.

The door slid open yet again and they all stiffened up, only to – speak of the devil – find Allura sending them a quizzical look.

"So you _were_ here," she said with a hint of that exact teacher-like wrath they had dreaded.

"W-We can explain," Hunk immediately stuttered, hiding the remains of his snack. "We just–"

He was cut off by Allura waving him off, the Altean walking up to the three and thrusting some sort of chart into their faces. "Can you explain these?" She was pointing at a drawing that looked vaguely human, little scribbly lines and dots marking spots on its body. Some were thin and black, a few thick and red. "In particular these red ones."

"Are these Lance's injuries?" Hunk immediately asked. 

Allura hesitated, but nodded. "Coran wrote up this report before falling asleep on his desk. Neither of us quite understand a few of these wounds. Some of them were very clean and also… sown back together."

"You mean like in a surgery?" Keith suddenly interjected. 

Immediately, the paladins recalled Baki's words and how he had called Cesar a _mad scientist_. In that moment, they all suddenly understood what had happened to Lance, albeit only vaguely.

Pidge snatched the report out of Allura's hands, eyes scanning over the diagrams and in particular, Coran's crude drawing depicting the placement and severity of Lance's wounds. 

"As I mentioned…" Allura continued, tired eyes still trained on the report, "since human bodies do differ from ours, I'm not quite sure what Cesar did exactly. I would appreciate your help in finding out."

Eyes still running over the drawing, Pidge eventually pointed at a bright red mark drawn in the abdominal area. "This was the appendix, probably. At least judging by the location."

"Yeah, agreed." Even though Hunk's tone was light, there was undeniable sadness in his eyes.

Keith leaned into Pidge, grabbing at a corner of the report and slightly pulling it towards himself. "Are those… _holes_?" 

"I think those are like keyhole incisions _._ From kidney removal, you know." When everyone sent Hunk puzzled looks, he shrugged. "My uncle donated his kidney to my aunt and that was how they explained it. I think the holes are to insert a telescope and other stuff. Somehow they manage to get a whole kidney out that way, but I don't really know how it works exactly."

Allura took the report back, worried eyes scanning over the Altean characters yet again. "And it's not… fatal? To not have those organs, I mean."

"No, not really," Pidge replied. "Not if it's done right. We'll just have to see how he does… I guess."

There was a brief silence in which the newly acquired knowledge of what had happened to Lance weighed heavily on all of them. Would this have happened if they had gotten to him faster? Had they messed up by not breaking into Cesar's office sooner? Could this all have been prevented somehow?

"What else does the report say?" Keith suddenly asked, dispelling the silence.

Allura's expression grew pinched at the question, eyes drifting off towards the side. "There are a few other minor injuries. Nothing major. A few cuts and bruises."

Hunk suddenly groaned, frustration tinting the sound. "I _saw_ him. Those weren't just minor injuries. He looked really… _really_ beat up. A-And he was tortured or something. That… That _guy_ ripped out his entire fingernail. I don't even want to imagine what else he did." He was close to tears at this point, Pidge placing a soothing hand on his arm, expression sombre.

Keith wasn't faring much better. Frozen in place, his eyes were first trained on a motionless Shiro floating in his pod, before getting stuck on Lance in his, unconscious and injured. All kinds of thoughts were almost visibly running through his head, guilt written all over his face. Evidently, he hadn't been aware of the whole torture segment of Cesar's procedures. And how could he have? He hadn't taken a closer look at Lance ever since finding him. He had been the first in the room, the first to find him, yet he hadn't been able to bring himself to approach his blood-stained comrade. Even after that, he couldn't set his eyes on Lance. With him in the cryo-replenisher, this was the first time Keith got a good look at him; now, after most of the obvious, superficial wounds had been healed already.

"Now…" Allura cleared her throat, a frown taking over her face, "all of you better be in your rooms and in bed within the next ten minutes or else there will be hell to pay."

The paladins were equally amused and terrified. Allura was pulling out mom lines on them and they were genuinely terrifying, prompting the three teens to haphazardly scramble out of the room.

Left behind was Allura, the princess wearing a waning smile. Looking at the two occupied pods lighting up the entire room, she had to bite her lip to somehow keep her tears from falling.

* * *

The moment Keith woke up, his first thought was of Shiro and Lance in their pods. His heart stuttered slightly at the thought of Shiro coming out as an entirely different person, a horrifying chimera of all the people that weren't Shiro, something in his brain having been altered in the healing process somehow. The thought was almost immediately interrupted by a vision of Lance, the paladin swimming in a pod full of his own blood, drowning and screaming for help, but no one ever coming. 

Evidently, Keith had been still half asleep.

Even faster than usual Keith was out of bed and dressed, quickly walking towards the infirmary. But once he was standing in front of the door, he hesitated. Again. Did he really have a right to go in there? After everything he had done?

"Keith?"

Flinching, Keith stepped away from the door like he had been caught doing something naughty. "Oh… Hunk. Morning."

"Morning," the Yellow Paladin mumbled back, still rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "Did you manage to sleep at all?"

"A little." It wasn't exactly a lie. Keith didn't sleep much to begin with, so sleeping for barely an hour instead of three wasn't that big of a deal to him. "I guess you didn't sleep at all." A fond smile stretched his lips when he took in the sight Hunk presented: unbrushed hair sticking out in odd directions, headband crooked and deep shadows under his usually bright eyes. "You look like hell."

"I try."

Pidge and Coran appeared behind Hunk, neither looking any better. Pidge's bed hair was on an entirely new level, making the small teen look like a grumpy lion. Coran simply looked like a sad, kicked puppy. He was fortunate to not have seen what had happened in Cesar's little lab, but the situation still weighed on him.

The infirmary door suddenly slid open to reveal Allura, the princess looking just as tired as everyone else, yet still radiating with a certain regal energy. "Coran, isn't it about time Shiro came out?"

"Oh!" Immediately perking up, his moustache wiggling along with the movement, Coran rushed into the room to survey the situation. "You're right! He should be out any tick no–"

The sound of one of the pods hissing silenced the Altean, cold mist billowing over the floor as one of the cryo-replenisher doors slid up. A quiet groan came along with it.

"Shiro!" came a chorus of voices, alerting the Black Paladin to the presence of his entire team. Coran immediately rushed to his side to help him out, carefully holding on to him. 

"How do you feel?" the Altean asked, his usual bubbliness returning to his voice. "Does anything hurt? You look absolutely knackered!" Without even waiting for a reply, Coran sat Shiro down in a chair, then proceeded to wrap him in a thick blanket and shine a small flashlight into his eyes. Before he could ask more, Allura placed a calming hand on his arm, urging him to take a small breath before continuing. "Well? How are you?"

A warm smile lit up Shiro's tired face, his non-Galra arm coming up to lightly pat Coran on the arm. "I feel great. Like I just woke up from a nice nap." 

Hearing the words, Coran's stiff posture relaxed and Allura affectionately rubbed his back, her own eyes finally lighting up as well.

Meanwhile, Keith was trying his hardest to suppress the shaking of his hands, his relieved sigh coming out sharp and heavy. He started slightly when Shiro suddenly met his eyes, his warm smile enveloping him entirely, like a warm blanket on a chilly autumn day. He almost felt ashamed that Shiro could read him so easily. Keith kept his thoughts so carefully guarded, yet Shiro could see through his facade like it was a layer of mere shrink-wrap. He could see all the unease, all the anxiety. All the _guilt_. This bone-crushing, mind-consuming feeling of self-loathing. He hated himself for what he had said to Lance in a moment of hotheaded rage and he hated how Shiro still looked at him like he was an innocent child that could do no wrong. 

"Open it."

Keith hadn't been paying attention to the conversation going on around him, only coming back to reality when he heard Allura's sharp tone. There was a weirdly nervous edge to her words. 

"Wait," Hunk spoke up uncertainly, "isn't he supposed to just… fall out on his own once he's done healing?"

"He was scheduled to come out some time before Shiro, especially considering he has been in there twice as long" Coran mumbled, typing around on the monitor attached to Lance's pod. "The readouts say that he's good as gold, but for some reason he won't come out."

"Is it really that odd for someone to be a couple minutes late?" Pidge questioned, bedhead now slightly more tamed.

Stepping away from the monitor, Coran twirled his moustache in thought. "This is unprecedented, so I'm not entirely sure how to interpret it. It could just be the pod malfunctioning."

"In which case we need to get him out and make sure he's fine," Allura immediately said, voice vibrating with a certain nervous tension. 

"I agree." Shiro, still in an off-white pod suit, slowly got off his chair. "I say we open it." 

Coran hesitated for a moment, eyes locked with Shiro's, before he turned back towards the monitor. "Very well." He typed in sequence of Altean symbols, upon which Lance's pod hissed, its door slowly opening.

"Keith…"

Said teen had to suppress a surprised squawk when Shiro suddenly appeared at his side, smiling down at him with a slightly mischievous glint in his eyes. 

"You go."

"What?" Before Keith could inquire what exactly Shiro meant, he was pushed forward and towards Lance's pod, until he was close enough that he could see strands of Lance's short hair move with the draft of air that the pod created. 

All of a sudden, Lance stumbled forward and out of his pod, eyes still closed and looking for the most part like he was still unconscious. 

His body moved of its own accord and suddenly Keith was catching the other paladin in his own arms, Lance's slightly taller frame fitting into his strangely well. He fumbled around until he managed to securely grip Lance around the waist, the other paladin limply wrapped around him. It took a few moments, but eventually Lance seemed to wake up, face leaving the comfort of Keith's shoulder so he could open his eyes. They blearily blinked open, staring at nothing but Keith's neck for a while. Eventually, realisation hit him and his widening eyes wandered upwards until they met those of the person holding him.     

"Uh…" To say Keith was at a loss for words would be an understatement. Lance's body felt cold against his and he could feel the cool puffs of the other's breath hit his face. His own hands felt incredibly hot against Lance's frigid body. A sort of tingly knot suddenly formed in Keith's guts, making his entire body feel not like his own. Against his better judgement, his eyes wandered down to Lance's neck, particularly the expanse of skin exposed by the loose pod suit he was wearing. 

"Am I dead?"

This was when Keith forgot about everything around them; he didn't hear Coran leaving the room in a hurry, he didn't notice anyone watching them. All he could see or feel was Lance. Eyes locked with Lance's empty gaze, Keith was now looking at someone he had fought and lived with for months at this point, yet he could see none of that person right now. It stunned him into silence, unable to even process the question at first. All he could do was shake his head, eyes filling with emotion, hands coming up to grip Lance's shoulders. "You're alive. We came for you! Don't you remember?"

Surprise spread on Lance's features, the kind that was incredulous and hesitant. "You came for me? You really…"

"Of course! Why wouldn't we? Why…" Keith trailed off, thoughts muddled, racing and yet sluggish.

"I thought you wouldn't want me back."

The meek tone along with Lance, usually loud and boisterous and _confident_ , defeatedly lowering his head just about broke Keith's heart. 

 _I did this_. 

"Lance, look at me. Look at me! I would _never_ –"

"Emergency!" Coran's voice suddenly rang out, interrupting whatever moment had just been happening. He came running back into the room, sweating and panting like he had just run a marathon, eyes horrified. "We received a transmission from Baki in Persia! The city is under martial law after several coordinated terrorist attacks! Civil war has officially broken out!"

It goes without saying that Team Voltron did not have a nice morning that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up next Friday, as usual. I hope this chapter satisfied all those people who wanted to see Lance in even deeper shit, as well as anyone who just wanted him to reunite with the team already. I've honestly been a bit antsy about actually uploading this because it has the potential to be really upsetting to some people. But the great response I got ultimately kept me from cutting any of it out, so thanks to anyone who left comments and kudos.
> 
> And a quick heads-up: this chapter concludes the first arc of this two arc (probably) story. The next chapter will be a bit of a transition, after which there will be a tonal shift, so don't be too surprised.


	7. No Dreams

Several pairs of eyes followed the paladin as he paced up and down the room, never stopping, never resting. Lance was frantic, stalking to and fro, all the while arguing with Allura.

"We don't have time for this," he said quietly, visibly uncomfortable with the situation. "There's a civil war going on, Allura." 

"A war that will not settle down simply because of our presence," Allura shot back immediately, eyeing Lance with calm poise. "What is important now is having information on our side. Baki is only semi-reliable and we cannot go in completely oblivious."

"I don't know anything!" The Blue Paladin argued, distancing himself from Allura's attempts to reason with him by walking to the other side of the Castle's bridge. "I was kinda busy trying to stay alive, in case you didn't know!" 

"How are we supposed to know if you don't tell us anything!" 

That shut Lance up. He tried to find some kind of counterargument, to come up with a way out of this conversation. But he came up empty. "Fine!" he eventually barked. "But we're leaving right after." He finally sat down in his bridge chair, the remaining paladins and Coran scattered around the room, watching silently. 

Once both Allura and Lance had begun arguing back and forth, none of them had dared to move or even speak up. It was an unfamiliar, almost alien situation. Lance arguing with Allura was something they couldn't possibly have fathomed even a day ago.

"Where do I start?" Lance sighed, slumping heavily into his chair. 

Leaning against her control panels, Allura took in a small breath, seemingly in an attempt to calm herself. "Coran already recounted to us the events leading up to you leaving. I would like to know everything that happened _after_ you left." 

Immediately, exhaustion seemed to wash over Lance, as though even just the prospect of having to retell the events of the past day or so was going to suck the life out of him. "I just… got into my lion, flew in and immediately got into a fight."

From there, he detailed all the things he had gone through: fighting the Orak, Cesar giving him a small tour, the party, Baki, Sona, Vera. Excluding the details of what had happened in Baki's office, he recounted everything up until he had arrived in that dark, cave-like room, kids and people his age milling about. 

"They just… There was a raid," Lance continued after a small pause, voice uncertain, uncharacteristically quiet. "And I…" He trailed off, suddenly remembering the wet thuds of people dropping to the ground around him like lifeless meat sacks. They echoed and bounced off of the inside of his skull, piercing his brain over and over and over again. The deceptively sweet scent of warm blood was back in his nose, his cheek feeling wet again. Was it still on him? Had he been running around with blood on his face this entire time? 

"Lance!"

"What?" It took a few moments for Lance to realise that Allura had been calling his name for quite a while, at least judging by the both exasperated and worried expression she was wearing. "Sorry, what did you say?"

Allura let out a small sigh, shoulders slumping. "What happened during the raid?" Shiro suddenly rose to his feet, looking like he was about to protest, but Allura waved him off, silently shushing him. "Even if this is difficult for you, we need to know. Persia has their version of what happened, but we need to know what _actually_ happened."

"I get it," Lance grumbled, hunching his shoulders. He went silent for a moment, trying to find the best way to put into words what had happened. "There were a lot of people that needed to escape and those guards would've arrested all of them. So I stepped in and tried holding them up until everyone got away. That's it."

Allura's expression then was unreadable, betraying no particular emotion. "And you threatened them with a bomb?"

Eyebrows rising in surprise, Lance lapsed into a stunned silence, but not for long. "Y-Yeah… kinda. It was a bluff, obviously. I got arrested anyway." 

Nodding, Allura's eyes were trained on the floor, the princess looking deep in thought. "And after that?" she eventually said. "What happened in the prison?"

Lance's jaw dropped, mouth opening and closing in an attempt to speak, yet no words ever leaving. This was when the colours that made up Allura melted together and she disappeared, when the entire bridge dissolved, every person that was dear to him gone. All he was left with was darkness. Loneliness. Echoes of events already gone by. He was back in the prison cell, he was alone again, powerless again. No one there but himself to save him. The thunderous rumbling of his own blood rushing through his body was almost deafening. 

Lance flinched violently when, out of nowhere, a hand grabbed him around the arm, almost pulling him out of his chair. Suddenly, he was looking at a shadowy figure, a familiar silhouette. Muffled, incomprehensible voices spoke to him, words distant and distorted. 

Then, Shiro was in front of him. "–okay? Lance? Hey!"

"I-I'm fine," the Blue Paladin forced out, wriggling out of his leader's grasp. "Just zoned out. I'm tired." Shiro reluctantly let go of his arm and Lance settled back into his bridge chair. "I don't really remember what happened in prison. I just kind of… passed out and ended up in Cesar's lab." 

The silence that followed was deafening, palpable, hanging in the air like a thick fog. 

A frown had spread on Allura's face. She looked exhausted. Tense. "And in that lab, he performed surgeries on you against your will."

Lance gulped, his throat suddenly dry. "Yeah…"

Gaze apologetic, Allura rubbed her hands together nervously. "I understand that there might not be much that you can recall, but perhaps there is something you remember anyway."

"What?"

"The surgeries?" Allura's eyebrows quirked up into a confused frown. "He… performed certain procedures on you while you were unconscious, didn't he?"

Lance knew he should tell her, tell his team. Tell them what had happened in that library-like lab that had changed him, twisted him into a form unrecognisable even to himself. They _had_ to know. "Yeah, right! Of course I was! Really don't remember much." He paused for a moment, willing his racing heart to settle down. "Oh! Uh… He had this conversation with someone. Galra, I think. Something about a deal. Apparently he was gonna hand me over to them in the morning in exchange for… solving some kind of conflict? I guess?"

The words immediately piqued Allura's interest, the princess suddenly straightening up where she stood. "Have they already aligned with the Galra empire?" she wondered out lout, expression regretful. Suddenly, she clenched her fist. "Why did you kill Cesar?"

Lance went pale. He was sure his entire team could hear it, could hear his heart racing and his lungs suddenly contracting, leaving barely enough air to breathe. "I-I… woke up after a while and he was going to take one of my eyes and I just… you know… I kinda snapped. Or something. I don't know what happened, okay! I was just suddenly standing there and he was bleeding and I had a knife in my hand and-and–"

"It's fine," Shiro cut him off, placing a comforting hand on Lance's shoulder. "No one is blaming you. You acted out of self-defence."

All Lance could do was nod. 

Deep down he knew it hadn't been self-defence. He knew that somewhere in that lab he had decided to kill Cesar. He could have simply believed in his team, believed that they would come to save him eventually. Instead, he had given up. He had stopped believing. He had ceased to be a person fit to fulfil the sacred duty of a paladin of Voltron. 

And yet, here he was. 

The most painful thing was having people like Hunk and Coran still looking at him like he was their comrade and friend. Like he wasn't a monster.

* * *

"He's lying to us."

Shiro watched as Allura stared down at her monitor like it could somehow provide answers to her many questions. "I know."

"Why would he lie to us?"

"I don't know," Shiro sighed, another headache already making its way across the inside of his skull. "He could have any number of reasons."

The princess' eyes narrowed, fists clenching where they sat on top of her console. "And you are certain that going back to Persia will not be too dangerous? Especially with Lance not telling us what really happened?"

"I am," the Black Paladin immediately replied, a reassuring smile curling his lips. "With Cesar gone and the government in shambles, we don't have any enemies there. At least that we know of. We should be fine." He could see that Allura wasn't convinced, but she nodded anyway.

"Fine. But make sure to call us as soon as something seems off."

"I will." Putting on his helmet, Shiro then headed out. On his way out, he nodded at Coran, who stood next to the bridge door with an equally worried look in his weathered eyes. 

The rest of Team Voltron were already waiting in front of the hangars, greeting their leader with muted expressions and half-hearted waves. To have a city they had visited mere hours ago suddenly break out into a war weighed on everyone. Many _What-ifs_ floated through their heads, constantly reminding them that their arrival in Persia had somehow spawned a civil war. In particular Lance's run-in with Cesar.

"Everyone ready?" Shiro greeted them, causing everyone to straighten up immediately. Once he received a chorus of agreement, he smiled. "It's good to have everyone back together. Make sure it stays that way."

Minutes later, Team Voltron was flying back down to the jungle planet, this time in formation. A show of power, despite the Blue Lion's absence. And almost immediately, they received a radio transmission. 

"I'll take it," Lance suddenly said from inside Hunk's cockpit, already pushing buttons to accept the transmission and prompting annoyed grumbles from the actual pilot of the Yellow Lion. "I know who it is."

There was some brief crackling, before a voice came through quite clearly. Whatever had been jamming their signal before was now mostly gone. _"–ance? Lance!"_ a female voice said. _"Is that you?"_

"Yeah, it's me." Gulping, Lance cringed a bit at how uncertain his own voice sounded. "We came to check out what's going on."

_"We don't need your help."_

That coaxed a chuckle out of Lance. "Yeah, I figured. We still wanna see what's going on. _Defender of the universe_ business and stuff. We can't just ignore a planet that suddenly breaks out into a war." 

There was a sharp, slightly distorted sigh from the other line. _"Come to the city hall. We took it over a couple hours ago and we're in the middle of planning our next steps. Our leader said we need your assistance for something. I don't see the point but whatever. Later."_

"Wait, Ver–" Lance couldn't even get another word in before the Velonian ended the transmission abruptly. "So uh… we going to city hall or what?"

"I guess we are," Shiro mumbled, already steering his lion towards the tallest building of the city, the lone structure towering over everything else. "Remember, we're here to try and appease whoever's instigating these conflicts and have everyone lay down their weapons. It's a bit naive, I know, but we need to at least try." 

Once everyone voiced their agreement, the lions began their descent. By the time they reached a place to land, it had begun to rain, the ground already covered in a thin layer of dancing water. And as soon as they left the lions, they were greeted by a few armed Velonians sending grim looks at them. 

After a short stare-down between the members of Voltron and the Velonians, the tallest of the Velonians stepped forward. "Follow us," he simply ordered, seemingly unfazed by the squad of mechanical lion beasts that had just descended from the sky.

"Just a second," Shiro replied, turning around to focus stern eyes on his team. "Okay, Pidge and Hunk, you two stay back and take care of the lions, like we planned. We can't have whatever happened to the Blue Lion happen to the others."

"But–"

"Pidge, we can't leave them unguarded like this. And if even only two lions are at our disposal in case of some kind of emergency, that's going to be a huge help."

The Green Paladin let out a sharp sigh, eyeing Shiro with a disgruntled frown. "Well, fine." Pidge's eyes briefly fell on Keith, probably the strongest fighter in their group next to Shiro, as well as Lance, who was practically the star of this entire show. "As soon as we notice something off, we're gonna be there."

"I'm counting on it." Shiro gave the two a quick pat on the shoulder and a reassuring smile, before heading off together with Keith and Lance.

Pidge and Hunk watched as the other three were ushered into a truck of sorts, staying behind still looking somewhat conflicted and worried. 

The next few minutes passed by silently, as the three paladins in the truck took in the devastation. Persia, once the glimmering pinnacle of Velonian ingenuity, was now a broken mess. Those buildings with impossible architecture that Lance had first admired were now broken and smashed apart. The streets were covered in rubble and debris, people shuffling and running around, constantly on edge and nervously looking over their shoulders. Buildings were falling apart as they drove by, the dull booming of structures collapsing palpable even in the truck.

"What happened?" Lance suddenly mumbled, quietly, more to himself.

"Bombs," the driver said in a gruff voice. "Especially in the northern districts where most betas live."

A light seemed to go up in Lance's eyes, his face lighting up with realisation. Hastily, he pressed his face into the window, hands on either sides, fingers slowly curling together into fists. When he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned around, finding Shiro looking at him sympathetically. 

"We'll sort things out," he whispered. "Don't worry."

Eyes dropping downwards, Lance nodded. Once he had separated from the window, he sat back into his seat and only occasionally let his eyes wander outside. The destruction only got worse the further in they got. "How did all this happen in one day?" 

"We've been planning this for a long time," the driver immediately replied, unwavering eyes focused on the street, no discernible emotion readable from their reflection in the rearview mirror. "I thought Vera told you about the plan."

"Yeah… she did." She had, but Lance hadn't been aware of the resources the rebels seemed to have at their disposal. He had thought that at most they would be able to shake up the government a little, that at some point they would need Voltron's help. But evidently, he had grossly underestimated them. 

The ride continued silently for a few more minutes, before the city hall building came into view. It was one of very few tall structures that wasn't broken or even smoking. Gulping, Lance could feel his body tense up the second the truck stopped. He nervously fiddled with his hands, watching as Shiro and Keith both exited looking relatively calm. After taking a deep breath, Lance followed them, hot, humid air immediately wafting past his face. Somehow it was even hotter here than wherever they had landed. 

The three paladins were then led into the same conference room where Cesar had always sat like it was his throne room, everyone inside his servant. Now it was filled with people, busy and loud. Monitors had been torn out to be replaced by other kinds of machinery, all sorts of electronic devices mingled together, buzzing and purring.

Right away, someone approached them. 

"You really did come. Considering you're a hero to the rebels and public enemy number one to the betas, I thought you wouldn't dare show your face here."

It took Lance a moment to regain his bearings, a minute flicker of shock and pain flashing over his face, before a grin spread on his features. "I keep my promises. Especially if it's one with a pretty lady." He expected the cold reaction, but seeing Vera's absolutely neutral, unchanging expression still made Lance wince inwardly. "So what's the dealio? You guys want us to cause _even more_ destruction? Cause I don't think we're cool with that."

Vera's eyes briefly narrowed in something akin to anger or disgust, before she schooled her expression into something more neutral again. "Nothing of the sort. We need someone to scout out Velanos' moon for us. There are reports of the Orak gearing up further, so it looks like they're planning even bigger attacks. The damage they did over the past couple days was helpful to us, but now we can't have an outside force interfere. Our conflict with them is what originally made you come here, isn't it? Might as well finish the job."

Briefly at a loss for words, Lance had no witty comeback. He didn't have to, because in that moment Shiro stepped in.

"If we're going to take on this mission, there will be a few conditions."

"What kind?" Already, Vera was suspicious, frustration tinting her gaze.

"You need to stop this unanimous violence." Shiro firmly held the Velonian's gaze, despite her cold eyes staring down at him from above. "No matter your cause, it doesn't warrant this kind of senseless destruction. It makes you no better than the Galra empire."

"I don't care what the Galra do," Vera immediately snapped. "It has nothing to do with us. We do things _our_ way."

Shiro was already opening his mouth to argue back, when suddenly Lance rushed past him, stunning him into silence. He watched in shock as Lance stood up straight in front of him, facing Vera himself.

"Vera, you _need_ to stop," the Blue Paladin said, voice shaking slightly with emotion. "Who are you even fighting? Betas have no way of defending themselves. You're just slaughtering everyone!"

Immediately, Vera's expression turned sharp and poisonous. "They need to understand the pain we went through. You wouldn't understand. You never–"

"I do understand, okay? I really do." Thinly veiled frustration lined Lance's words. "Persia isn't the only city where people get treated unfairly. Places like that exist all over the universe, especially on my home planet." He watched Vera take in his words, agitatedly grinding her teeth. "What about your leader guy? Does he approve of this?"

"Him? He's just the brain." Vera waved it off as though the guy hadn't masterminded a violent revolution that so far had cost hundreds, perhaps even thousands of lives. "I'm the brawn. How I choose to execute his plans is up to me."

"You mean like how you snuck into a reassignment truck to free other omegas?"

For a moment, Vera simply narrowed her eyes at Lance, carefully studying him. "Yeah, like that."

Lance had almost expected her to deny plotting that sort of thing. It somewhat explained her initial frigid attitude towards him, seeing how he had essentially ruined her entire rescue mission; even if, ultimately, he had aided her in her cause. "I get that you're angry. You have every right to be. But it's not like every beta living in this city has hurt you." Suddenly, a certain vulnerability entered the paladin's eyes, as though he was remembering a past memory, some kind of painful event. "How do you know all of them are bad people? You're treating them exactly the way you were treated. Do you really wanna stoop to that kinda level?"

"Don't you think I know that?" Vera suddenly shouted, fury rolling off her entire body. "A leader has to make hard decisions sometimes and this is one of them! Change doesn't–"

"Change happens when you let it! You're not even giving it a chance." 

Silence.

Vera seemed to understand his point, finally. Lance was looking anywhere but Vera, face set in a frown and a haunted look to his eyes. Meanwhile, neither Shiro or Keith could see his face, only the slight tension to his shoulders. They were absolutely stunned, staring at Lance with a mix of surprise and pride.

"So do we have a deal?" Lance suddenly spoke up, voice oddly solemn. "We go investigate the Orak and you lay down your weapons?"

Still frowning, Vera regarded the paladin with a hard look. "Seven days. No more than that. We can't have those birdbrains think they can get the jump on us by attacking while we're laying low."

"But–"

"We can reconsider once you've dealt with your end." Vera began walking away, continuing to talk over her shoulder. "Whether or not there's gonna be a ceasefire doesn't just depend on me, so you better have something to show to be able to make demands like that." She briefly said something to an armed Velonian, who approached the paladins once Vera was out of sight.

"I will lead you to your lion," he said, already heading off towards a different area. The gun-like weapon strapped to his back gave off a metallic clanking as he walked.

Lance was about to simply follow him, when Shiro suddenly appeared next to him, a hand patting his shoulder. He jumped a little, before noticing the proud smile directed at him. Even without words, he knew what Shiro meant. 

 _Good job_.

For the most part, the paladins were silent as they followed the Velonian. They let their eyes wander over the many things happening in the various rooms of the city hall building. The hallways were filling up with bags of equipment and supplies, the conference rooms being reworked into command centres, the many offices and private rooms repurposed into sleeping quarters. It was clear this had all been meticulously planned out over years. Everything was progressing at an incredible pace, every move calculated, every action predetermined. Whoever had helmed this was some sort of tactical genius.

"The research lab the lion is being restrained in is in the basement," the armed Velonian suddenly explained, never looking back to meet any of the paladins' eyes. "A team of scientists were tearing off the outer plating and messing around with the insides. You're lucky we got here and secured it before they started taking it apart completely."

"So it was right under our noses the entire time," Keith grumbled, a frown forming on his face. 

Suddenly, the floor beneath their feet seemed to vibrate, the walls creaking slightly, a soft tremor running through the entire building. Before anyone had time to even process what was happening, Lance was suddenly dashing away, running past their guide and towards a door to the right. He was gone within seconds.

"Lance, wait!" Shiro yelled, already sprinting after the Blue Paladin, Keith hot on his tail as well. 

"Is he going to his lion?" Keith caught up to Shiro, briefly glancing back at their guide, who was running after them with a less speedy pace, looking to struggle to keep up.

"I think so."

They could both feel the slight vibration of the floor gradually turning into a much more palpable shaking, the sound of the Blue Lion rumbling swirling through their minds. Eventually, they ended up in a large hall-like room and immediately, a shiver ran down their spines as the sheer coldness of the room hit them. It was like stepping into a freezer, their breaths billowing out of their mouths in small clouds. 

"What–" Keith's words got stuck in his throat as he took in the sight before him. 

The Blue Lion was lying on its stomach, head resting on the floor. And sitting against its snout was Lance, the Blue Paladin idly running a hand over its smooth metal surface. He looked entirely content sitting there with the tips of his hair visibly freezing together, his skin already going pale from the extreme cold. 

Wrapping his arms around himself and trying to rub some warmth back into his skin, Keith glanced to his side, where Shiro was staring owlishly at the pair in front of them. "Did the scientists do this or is the lion making the room this cold?"

Shiro met Keith's eyes briefly looking dumbfounded, but his expression soon shifted into a sombre smile. "I guess the lions have their own ways of grieving." 

Taking the words in, Keith began simply watching as Lance continued cooing and whispering to his lion. With time passing bit by bit, the room seemed to grow warmer, their breaths soon becoming invisible again. 

Something about the scene presented in front of him transfixed Keith, made him unable to tear his eyes away from the other paladin. The tips of Lance's slightly frozen hair sticking to his forehead, the way his slender hand ran over his lion's snout, the peaceful look to his eyes. The air around the lion still seemed colder than the rest of the room, clouds of breath still visibly swirling around Lance's face. 

Keith didn't understand why, but for some reason, he was entirely captivated by Lance in that moment.  

* * *

The return to the Castle went by in a relatively uneventful way. Shiro, Keith and Lance successfully regrouped with Hunk and Pidge and all five returned to the Castle with everyone in their respective lion. With the Velonian rebels having agreed to a temporary peace, Team Voltron's initial objective had been cleared, leaving them with a new mission: getting the Orak to stop attacking. As their first step, Allura and Coran had decided to head out in the morning and to try and negotiate with the Orak in any way possible. 

The day had ended rapidly after that, night time coming along almost too quickly for Lance to keep up. With his lion back, a brief sense of calm had eased his mind for a few hours, but now that he was back in his room and his lion in the hangar, he was alone. Gone was any peace he had felt. He laid wide awake, staring up at the dark ceiling of his small room, desperately trying to will himself to fall asleep. Restlessness had settled in his bones the moment he had parted from his lion, causing him to now roll from side to side in his bed, kick off his blanket, then pull it back up almost immediately. Again and again, he would stare at the digital clock on his nightstand and calculate how many hours of sleep he would get if he just fell asleep in that moment. With every passing hour, this process became more and more agonising. There had been moments where he had fallen into a restless slumber, waking up after a mere ten or fifteen minutes with faint, twisted images and distorted voices still echoing in his mind. Faceless ghosts and booming voices spitting muffled words at him haunted his dreams.

Even when he did fall asleep, he still wasn't at peace. 

Once his clock hit 4 AM, Lance jumped out of bed and stalked out of his room. With the hallways of the Castle lit up dimly by the small blue lights along the smooth walls, Lance found himself wandering around; the same way he had a few days ago, right before he had made one of the dumbest decisions of his life. He pointedly ignored the bridge and instead headed for the kitchen. His throat felt incredibly dry, his stomach painfully empty; perhaps with those things taken care of he would be able to sleep more easily. 

Lance entered the kitchen fully expecting it to be empty, which is why he let out a small squawk of surprise when he saw the figure sitting at one of the tables. "Keith? What're _you_ doing here?"

The Red Paladin jumped in his seat a little upon hearing the voice, having been engrossed in the pages of an old, worn out book, not expecting someone else to come in. He set down the steaming cup in his hands as he met Lance's inquisitive gaze. "I'm usually here around this time. What about you?"

Shrugging, Lance reluctantly took the seat in front of Keith, resting his head on the tabletop. "Can't sleep."

Keith let out a small hum, sipping from his cup. No other words fell between the two for a while, both paladins awkwardly avoiding eye contact, neither quite sure how to talk to the other. It was rare that they ever ended up in a room alone with each other. Somehow, it sucked some of the animosity out of their interactions, leaving them both confused as to how to communicate at all.

"What're you drinking?" Lance asked once he had shifted his head enough that he could actually see Keith. Evidently, he didn't take too well to longer, extended periods of silence. 

"Oh, this?" Keith briefly stared down into his cup, swirling the dark liquid inside around for a moment. "Just something Coran's been trying to make. Said his mom used to make it for him or something. Apparently, he still hasn't managed to recreate it perfectly."

"You mean that stuff she used to make for him to help him sleep?" When Keith nodded, a small smile began stretching Lance's lips. "He offered that stuff to me too. Why did he make it for you?"

Keith studied Lance's eyes for a second, taking another sip from Coran's mysterious drink. "Insomnia. Already had it back on Earth though, so I'm used to dealing with it. But Coran kept insisting and somehow I ended up drinking it every night. Guess it helps a little." He seemed to notice Lance intently staring at his cup, eyebrows furrowed. "Wanna try?"

"What? Oh…" Lance scratched his head, mulling over the offer for a moment. "I guess, yeah." He was about to take the cup, but instead suddenly went still. "Wait, what does it taste like?"

Pulling back the offered cup slightly, Keith cocked his head. "Watery, fruity coffee? Or tea? It's hard to describe. Tastes weird at first, but once you get used to it, it actually tastes pretty okay."

"Okay, but–"

"Don't be a baby about it, just drink it!" Keith barked, thrusting the half-full cup into Lance's hands. Their fingers brushed against each other, both briefly glancing into each other's eyes at the contact.

"Zip it, mullet boy," Lance grumbled back, turning the cup around so he could grab it at its handle. He tentatively brought it up to his face, taking a whiff of the mysterious brew and feeling the heat of it warm up his hands. Very carefully, he took the tiniest sip. When that didn't result in him keeling over and dying on the spot, he took another, bigger one. "Wow, that's actually not horrible. I could get used to this." 

"See?"

With his thoughts wandering off once Keith continued reading his book, Lance ended up drinking the entire cup over the course of the next few minutes, noticing too late that he had essentially stolen it from the other paladin. "Uh… sorry for drinking all of it," he broke the comfortable silence that had settled. 

Keith simply waved it off and shut his book. "Don't mind it. Coran always makes an entire kettle of this stuff. It's on the counter back there." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, motioning towards the still steaming kettle sitting on the counter.

"Oh…" Yawning, Lance got to his feet with the empty cup in hand, walking up to the counter so he could pour another one. Almost immediately, he felt the telltale prickle of paranoia crawling up his back and knew right away that he was being stared at. It had to be Keith staring at him from behind. And so he began rolling his shoulders, before turning around with two steaming cups in his hands. "So uh… why're you staring at me?"

"What?"

Sighing as he glanced up at the ceiling, avoiding Keith's confused gaze, Lance took a sip from his cup. "Did I do something wrong or…? You've just… You've been glaring at me all day. Ever since I came back. What's up?" 

"I haven't been _glaring_ at you," Keith bit back incredulously. "Why would I?"

"That's what I'm asking _you_!" Lance was furiously flailing his arms around as best as he could without having the cups in his hands spill over. "I notice this stuff, okay! Do you have like… a crush on me or something?"

Keith remained silent, opting to instead stare at Lance with an absolutely horrified expression, eyes impossibly wide.

Noting the lack of a reply, Lance stilled, throat going dry. "Wait, really?"

" _No!_ What makes you think that?"

Eyes almost bugging out of his skull, Lance finally set down the cups so he could freely throw around his arms. "The dead fucking silence just now?! The lack of a firm and immediate _No_! The fact that you're starting to get red!"

"I'm getting red cause you're pissing me off!"

"Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that. No one can resist these hips." Lance smirked and quickly rolled his hips, before his expression turned more neutral again. "So uh… how serious is this crush?"

Keith slammed his fists down on the table, causing the cups to jump a little. "I said I don't have a crush on you!" 

"That's uh… that's good then. I guess. Cause you know…" Lance gestured around as though somehow that was supposed to replace his words. All that earned was Keith looking lost, cocking his head with an entirely confused frown. "I mean…" Nervously scratching his head, Lance shifted from foot to foot. "I've never really thought of you that way. So um… if you don't, that's okay and if you do… sorry? I guess?" 

An incredibly exasperated sigh burst from Keith's mouth, the paladin looking close to breaking the table in half. "I don't have a crush," he hissed. "Just _stop_."

"Awesome! Great!" Grinning all of a sudden, Lance seemed to have finally noticed the inevitable beating he would suffer if he didn't disappear out of Keith's sight immediately. "Then I'll just… _leave_. Night!" Within seconds, Lance was out of the kitchen and dashing back towards his room as though he was being chased by an entire Galra fleet. 

But not without a steaming cup of mysterious space coffee nearly spilling over onto his fingers the entire time. 

* * *

Morning came much too early for Lance. No amount of sleep could have prepared him for the onslaught of sheer exhaustion and uneasiness that took over his body the second he opened his eyes. He knew he was supposed to get out of bed, put on clothes and meet the others in the bridge, but the thought of going through that entire process seemed almost impossible. Only after he found himself still glued to bed half an hour later, did he actually begin to move. And just in time, because in that moment, there was a tentative knock at his door.

"Lance?" It was Hunk, softly knocking on his door with worry clearly tinging his muffled voice. "What're you up to?"

Sighing, Lance forced himself up into a sitting position, wiping a hand over his face. "Sorry, didn't hear my alarm. Gimme a second."

"Take your time. Although no wait, actually hurry up, cause Allura and Coran are already out there negotiating with the Orak."

"Wait, _really_?" _That_ got Lance to move. Within seconds he was dressed and ready to go, bursting out of the door and almost running Hunk over. He yelled a "Good morning" over his shoulder at the Yellow Paladin as he ran off towards the bridge, still hastily adjusting his jacket. He arrived there out of breath, hands falling on his knees as he gasped for air. No one seemed to have noticed his arrival, too busy being in the midst of some kind of discussion.

"So they're still refusing to talk to us?" Pidge was asking, arms crossed and expression gloomy.

Allura nodded, the look in her eyes equally glum. "The Orak are essentially a race of warriors," she explained, looking to have just come back from the negotiations Hunk had mentioned. "Dying in battle is an incredibly honorable and holy thing to them, so the elders and the other warriors do not hold the deaths of their fellow warriors against us." She paused then, eyes dropping to the floor with her eyebrows set in a frown. "But like many societies on countless other planets, the Orak have groups of opposing views. And so the families and friends are a different story."

"What does that mean?" Shiro asked, his tense tone giving away the concern he felt.

The look in Allura's usually bright eyes darkened at the question. "In particular the parents and spouses of the fallen warriors have banded together to demand Lance's… execution. Especially considering he was the first one to engage the Orak, as well as the one responsible for the majority of casualties. The elders are still discussing with them and trying to come to some sort of agreement. If we are lucky, we might be able to at least speak with the elders about the Orak's conflict with the Velonians." 

Shiro nodded solemnly, looking conflicted at the news. His eyes suddenly went wide when his head shot up and he glanced towards the door, where he found Lance staring back at him. "Lance?"

The entire team finally noticed the Blue Paladin standing in the door, staring back at them looking completely crushed. 

Lance tried to smile, but was very obviously struggling. "Guess I'm not leaving the Castle for a while." He let out weak chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck as his smile faded. "I… I didn't…" He could feel tears welling up, thinking back to how he had so desperately pushed down any feeling of hesitation or regret while he had shot down fighter after fighter, never stopping to think who might be in there. Fathers, daughters, cousins. He had so easily erased lives, not even knowing for what purpose. Because Cesar had told him to? Because he had assumed the Orak were evil and needed to be defeated? "I didn't think…" He only noticed Shiro approaching him once he was already standing right in front of him, firmly gripping him by the shoulders. 

"Listen to me, Lance…" he said, all his attention completely focused on Lance, forcing the younger paladin to return his intense gaze and meet his eyes, "you only did what you thought was right. You followed a distress signal, saw the Orak attacking and did what any of us would have done. I would have done the exact same thing without hesitation. Innocent citizens would have died if not for your intervention. You _saved_ them. What you did was admirable!" 

Trying his hardest not to let any tears spill out, Lance clenched his teeth and nodded; he kept his head low as to not alert Shiro. There was no way he could even put into words the thunderstorm of turmoil happening in his mind. Guilt over his actions and pride over Shiro's words equally welled up inside him, bouncing back and forth, never settling. He breathed out a sharp sigh, stepping back and out of Shiro's reach. "Thanks, Shiro." He turned and quickly left, feeling the pressure of his entire team watching him weigh down on him.

There was no way he could ever tell them that having Shiro so close and gripping him like that, feeling his warm hands on his shoulders, was causing him enough distress to make him dizzy.

* * *

The Blue Lion's hangar was filled with noise when Lance entered later. Coran, Hunk and Pidge were all working on his lion and trying their best to restore it to its original condition. The Velonian scientists had done quite a number on it, mostly leaving it functionally intact but still managing to mess with the wires and the inner workings enough that Coran had deemed the Blue Lion unsafe to pilot. That left Lance completely stranded, even beyond the fact that the Orak had banned him from setting foot in their home. 

Lance was drawn to the signature sound of Hunk doing some sort of metal work, sparks flying from where he was working on the Blue Lion's front leg. He could see Pidge sitting off to the side on a laptop, furiously typing around on that poor keyboard. Coran was nowhere to be seen, most likely off buzzing around the Castle somewhere. With his hands shoved into his pockets, Lance sidled up to where Hunk was working and casually leaned against his lion. 

"Hey, Lance," Hunk immediately greeted him. His eyes briefly left the lion to give Lance a small once-over, stopping at his tired eyes. "You doing okay?"

Nodding, Lance unceremoniously plopped down on the floor next to Hunk. "Just fine. Got some food in me finally. What're you doing?"

Hunk looked slightly miffed by not quite getting the answer he had asked for. "Trying to fix the wiring around the joints. That's what got messed up the most." After pulling out, then reattaching one of countless wires elsewhere, he wiped a bead of sweat from his temple. "I think they were trying to figure out how the lions are so agile. The technology behind it is even more impressive once you start actually looking at all the little bits and pieces, so I get why they tore into it so much." He saw Lance nod sagely out of the corners of his eyes, clearly not quite grasping what exactly he was doing. 

Hunk continued working like that for a few more minutes, letting Lance occasionally engage him in mindless chit-chat about Earth, space and everything in between. Once Lance had been sitting beside him like that for ten minutes straight though, his patience finally wore out. 

"Okay, dude," Hunk began, setting down his tools so he could turn around and direct his full attention at Lance, "I don't mind you rambling at me about how horrible your grandma's boliche is, but you're obviously not here to talk about that, so what's up?"

Lance's jaw snapped shut at the words, a frown settling on his face. He grumbled something inaudible under his breath, before finally sighing. "Soooo… Keith…"

"Yeah? What about him?" Hunk shifted his legs until he was sitting cross-legged, preparing himself for yet another one of Lance's rants about his _eternal rival_.

"It would be weird for Keith to have a crush on me, right?"

Hunk owlishly stared at Lance for a moment, searching the other's face until he realised that he was being serious. "In what way?"

"All of them?!" Lance immediately shouted, throwing up his arms. "How _wouldn't_ that be the weirdest thing ever?"

"I don't really get it."

"Okay, okay. Just…" Breathing out sharply, Lance mirrored Hunk and settled into a cross-legged position. "I've never even considered Keith to be someone that has those kinds of feelings towards _anyone_ , you know? Except maybe the training drones. Wouldn't be surprised to find him jacking it to some kinda battle simulation."

"Lance…" Hunk said with a slight warning to his tone.

"I mean, dude, Keith? Can you picture him in a relationship? Doing the deed and shit? _Keith?_ "

"You're being an ass."

"I'm serious!"

Hunk finally let out a sharp sigh, turning away from Lance to go back to his tools. "Keith is just Keith and if he has a crush on someone, that's completely fine." He went back to fiddling around with wires, small sparks flying when he touched them together. "He's been by himself for a while, so he just doesn't seem all that sociable. Doesn't mean he dislikes people's company. I'm sure he wants affection just as much as anyone else."

Crossing his arms, Lance finally settled down. No matter how much he tried refuting them, Hunk's words made sense. "I guess if you put it like that…" He noticed Hunk sticking his tongue between his teeth, a gesture he knew meant he was trying to solve some kind of tricky problem. "Any problems with Blue?"

"Nothing we can't fix," Hunk immediately reassured him. "It's just that I asked Coran to bring me this one wrench so I can–"

The door suddenly slid open and the man in question appeared.

"Speaking of the devil." Hunk got to his feet, but stopped in his tracks when he noticed the distressed look on Coran's face. "What's up?"

Coran's pained look wandered to where Lance was still sitting on the floor. "Apparently, the Orak came to a decision regarding what should be done with Lance in order for them to even consider speaking with us any further." 

Lance could feel his breath catching in his throat, especially when Hunk turned to direct fearful dark-brown eyes at him. 

There was no way this could turn out well for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really happy everyone enjoyed the last chapter so much! It was somewhat of a midpoint climax, so it's awesome to get such a good reaction. Next chapter will be up in a week, as always.
> 
> Side note: Coran's space coffee is actually based on something I drink a lot IRL whenever I feel anxious or stressed.


	8. Wide-eyed

"A trial?" Facing Allura and Shiro, Lance could see how equally conflicted they both looked. The rest of the team were scattered around the bridge, watching their conversation with a mix of curiosity and trepidation.

Hands clasped together and face stern, Allura nodded. "The one thing all Orak seem to have in common is their belief that nature is sentient and all-powerful. Essentially, nature is a god of sorts to them. This trial is meant to test whether or not this god finds you worthy as a warrior and if it does, you will be absolved of all crimes."

"It's gonna be dangerous," Shiro suddenly interjected, stepping closer to Lance. "These forests are thicker and deeper than even the ones on Velanos. We don't know what's in there and the elders said that only few Orak return from this trial alive to become warriors." In an instant, his already serious expression turned even harsher. "I'm against it. There's no need for you to put yourself in that kind of danger."

"I agree," Allura said, her face much more openly concerned. "We can find other ways to negotiate with them. The elders are already on our side and I'm sure we can somehow manage to also win the opposing group over." 

Lance's eyes jumped back and forth between the two, the paladin mulling it over for only a moment. "I'll do it."

"Lance…" It was clear Shiro wanted to somehow deter Lance from his resolve, face falling and regret clearly radiating from his every fibre. "You don't have to do this."

Cracking a weak smile, Lance shook his head. "No, Shiro… I have to. I really do."

It seemed to dawn on Shiro that he couldn't change Lance's mind, causing him to let out a sharp sigh. "You can't even go in with your paladin armour. Or your bayard. They want you to go into the forest completely unguarded, with minimal weaponry. They want you to prove that nature, their god, accepts you wholeheartedly. It's a suicide mission!"

"Hey, if it's about survival, look no further than Mr. Survival Master here." A smirk immediately spread on Lance's features as he cockily jabbed a thumb at himself. "I've watched all seven seasons of _Man vs. Wild_ at least four times over. I know my way around a forest or two."

The sound of at least three people face-palming went unheard by the Blue Paladin. 

"Lance…" Hunk suddenly appeared beside the paladin in question, looking at him with horrified eyes. "If you drink your own pee, I don't think we can be friends anymore." 

"Wha…" An absolutely wounded, offended look appeared on Lance's face. "How _dare_ you?" he hissed. "You would turn your back on me for trying to _fucking survive_?"

"I'm sorry, okay, but I have my boundaries. I can't have friends who drink their own pee. I just–" Hunk suddenly gagged, face turning an odd shade of green. "I just can't, okay? I'm really sorry."

Lance crossed his arms with a frown. "I'm gonna drink my own warm pee just to _spite_ you."

"Oh god, please don–" The most horrifying, inhuman gagging sound then came out of Hunk, making everyone in the room wonder if they were about to see a return of Hunk's lunch. 

"Okay, guys, settle down." The hint of a badly concealed smile had appeared on Shiro's face. "Lance, you're allowed to take someone with you. Or rather, you're _supposed_ to take someone with you. The Orak tend to fight in groups of two or three, so the trial is also meant to bond comrades together. It's essentially a test of strength and a bonding exercise. You're not just testing your resolve and skill, but also your bond with your comrade."

"Oh, great!" Lance's frown instantly morphed into a shit-eating grin. Within seconds, he had an arm around Hunk's shoulder, pulling the slighter taller teen down towards himself. "Looking forward to drinking piss with you, Hunk."

Hunk was about to protest vehemently, but Allura cut him off. "Hunk needs to stay here and continue repairs on the Blue Lion. Above all else, making sure Voltron is ready for battle is one of our top priorities."

"Uh… then…" Lance's eyes wandered away from Hunk to the rest of the team. "Pidge?"

Pidge raised a hand in apology, not even meeting Lance's eyes, too busy messing around with some kind of holographic tablet. "Sorry, also gotta help with repairs."

Lance's eyes then landed on Shiro, who was already gazing back at him with an apologetic look. "Shiro?" he asked pitifully.

Shiro simply shook his head. "I need to stay to represent Voltron and continue negotiating with the Orak. There's no way I can leave." 

The moment Lance realised where this was going, the atmosphere around him turned sour, a deep frown twisting his features. He spent a few seconds simply glaring at Keith, just to make sure the other understood his utter displeasure with the situation. "Keith?" he growled.

Keith mirrored his frown, first looking to Shiro for help, but only getting a nod in return. A heavy sigh left him. "Fine, I'll do it. Even if it's just to make sure you don't drown in your own piss somehow."

"Hey!" 

Immediately, the rest of the team wondered whether this had any chance of going well.

* * *

The moment Lance stepped out of the small spacecraft that had carried everyone out of the Castle, fresh air hitting his face and wind pulling at his body, he wanted to yell out in glee. He had been cooped up in the Castle for what felt like weeks at this point, healing his wounds and hiding from the Orak, able to only watch as his teammates came and went to scout out the area. Taking a deep breath in, he stretched his arms out wide, then released the air from his lungs with a content sigh. Glancing around, he found a forest surrounding him to all sides, much like the jungle on Velanos. In fact, this place felt almost the same, safe for the lack of that unbearable moist heat constantly permeating the air in Persia. It was instead replaced by a much crisper, drier heat.

"The Orak village is a couple minutes away from here," Shiro explained to him, walking up behind him. "I've explained this to the others already, but the oxygen content in the air here is around three times as high compared to Earth. If you ever start feeling dizzy or disoriented, tell us right away. Especially once the trial starts."

Lance cocked his head slightly, confusion swimming in his eyes. "I thought I'm not supposed to be able to communicate with you guys during the trial?"  

"Uh… yeah… technically you're not supposed to." 

Shiro didn't elaborate, prompting Lance to simply nod. "Okay, sure." He noticed Shiro continuing to give him a concern-filled look, causing his frown to deepen. "Anything else?"

Something like pain flashed across Shiro's face for a second. "Are you really feeling okay?"

The question caught Lance slightly off guard. His first instinct was to answer honestly and to tell Shiro up front about all the horrible things that had happened in Persia, the things that were haunting his dreams, slowly creeping up on him throughout the day and culminating in a soul-crushing feeling of anxiety and self-hatred that wouldn't let him sleep at night. But he didn't. "Shouldn't I be asking you that? You took a pretty heavy beating cause of me."

A surprised chuckle left Shiro, the paladin suddenly looking slightly less tense. "I admit it was stupid of me to just jump in like that, but I don't regret it. I'm sorry for making you feel bad though."

The words instantly set off a wave of shame in Lance. "Wait, why're _you_ apologising?" he shrieked. "I'm the one that almost got you killed! What if your brain injury hadn't healed? What if–"

"Lance," Shiro cut him off, expression still calm and warm, "I'm fine, so it doesn't matter. We both need to learn from our mistakes and do better next time."

Before Lance could get another word in, Shiro simply patted him on the back and left, leaving him standing there feeling both relieved and crushed. 

Allura and the others exited the spacecraft then, Coran staying back in the Castle to keep watch. With a sun from an unknown galaxy ruthlessly beating down on them, they made their way to the Orak village. The only ones to personally go there so far had been Allura, Coran and Shiro, so when they all arrived, they realised that calling it a _village_ was probably an understatement. It wasn't as grand or futuristic as Persia, but the many wooden structures were still impressive, to say the least: winding around sky-high trees, they seamlessly blended into the landscape like they had simply sprung up from the grass that way. Despite looking somewhat makeshift, they seemed to have some sort of system to them, creating buildings and pathways neatly integrated into the thick forest.

"The Orak have a profound connection with the forest and all life inside of it," Allura began explaining when she noticed the obvious curiosity and wonderment in everyone's eyes. "It is deeply ingrained into their culture."

Suddenly, Lance perked up. "Wait, so they fuck the forest like in Avatar?"

"Lance, no one fucked the forest in Avatar," Hunk immediately protested. "They just put their ponytails in some stuff to talk." 

"Ponytails, which are their _dicks_!"

"That's not canon."

"They had a _sex scene_ , Hunk!" Lance yelled, throwing up his arms. "They stuck their weird tentacle ponytail dicks together and had sex! Don't be so naive! It doesn't get more canon than tha–!"

"Guys!" Shiro raising his voice finally got the two to stop arguing. "Focus!"

Lance reluctantly shut his mouth, sending a small glare at Hunk, who simply turned his nose up at him. 

They eventually reached the front gates of the Orak village, guards with tall spears and vicious eyes watching their every move. They took a long look at the princess, briefly scanning over the rest of the group, before nodding and stepping aside, the gate opening up behind them. 

It was the first time Lance got a closer look at this alien species. The first thing that stood out to him was their shape: short and somewhat round. Their stature made him think of hobbits or gnomes, with beady eyes and inhuman features, limbs thin and gangly. They almost looked cute, in the same way a pug with its scrunched up, dented face could be considered cute. Furthermore, the Orak communicated with cooing, grunts and clicking sounds, much like birds and monkeys would. It made Lance wonder how Allura and Shiro had communicated with them so far.

Lance was keenly aware of the countless pairs of eyes following them as they walked along a paved path towards the centre of the village. From a distance they could already see a large gazebo-like structure towering over the many smaller shacks surrounding it. A fire burned at its center, a group of Orak lined up in front. Lance watched as Allura activated some kind of orb-shaped device, hand reaching up to fiddle with the radio transmitter in her earring. With grace that only a princess could possess, she strode up to the Orak, who Lance assumed were the elders. It was hard to tell, since the only thing that was different about them was that their grey skin was slightly darker and the little tufts of hair on their body pale blue instead of lavender.

"Good evening," Allura greeted them, the orb in her hand immediately crackling and letting out noises not unlike the sounds the Orak used to communicate. "The Blue Paladin has decided to undertake the Trial of Warriors. The Red Paladin will be joining him." Her smile was slightly strained, but she did well in not letting any anxiety shine through. 

The Orak listened to the clicking of the translation orb until it ended, one of them stomping the ground with a walking stick. _"Accepted,"_ the orb translated the series of short clicks the elder let out. _"Follow."_

They were lead into the inside of the gazebo, where glittering ornaments hung from the ceiling and rich carpets covered the floors. Lance tried to ignore the nasty stares many of the younger Orak were directing at him. He could tell he wasn't welcome, even without having their beady eyes stare at him so hatefully. 

_"Paint!"_

Lance was shaken from his thoughts by his team suddenly staring at him, the words of the Orak finally reaching his brain. "Paint what?"

"I think they mean something like war paint," Allura explained. "Orak warriors have intricate designs painted on before battle and I think the warrior trial is the first initiation to that ritual."

"Uh… okay," Lance replied uncertainly. 

 _"Off,"_ one of the elders suddenly growled, jabbing his walking stick into the chest plate of Lance's paladin armour. Once he had the paladin's full attention, he pointed at a hut behind the gazebo. _"Both."_

Lance generally understood what he was supposed to do, getting to his feet and quickly glancing at Keith, who was slowly standing up as well. Shiro handed them their off duty clothes, shooting them a reassuring smile. It didn't help in easing the bundle of nerves that had settled in Lance's stomach, but it did make him feel a little less terrified. He didn't meet Keith's eyes the entire way to the hut, deliberately avoiding any eye contact. He _still_ wasn't a fan of doing this entire trial thing with Keith, but what other choice did he have?

Meanwhile, Keith silently sighed to himself, noticing how obviously Lance was ignoring him. It wasn't like he _wanted_ to be doing this right now, with _Lance_ out of all people too, but what else was he supposed to do? They weren't exactly mortal enemies, able to work together when necessary, but most of the time they were like fire and water. Quite literally. 

Keith closed the door of the little hut behind them, essentially locking himself in with Lance. Turning around, he found said paladin staring into space with a small frown. "Something wrong?" he sighed, reluctant to interact with the other paladin.

Lance seemed to snap out of a daze, flinching and looking at Keith as though he had forgotten he was there. "Ah… no… just…" He shook his head slightly and turned his back to the other. "Let's just get this over with."

Watching for a second as Lance somewhat aggressively pulled off his armour, Keith eventually began doing the same. He kept his back turned to Lance, eyes trained on a wall for the most part. The silence between them felt oddly tense and electrified, as though a small spark could set off an all-encompassing fire. 

Keith was eventually down to only his under-armour, about to pull down the zipper, when he heard a quiet gasp behind him. He stopped in his tracks, frozen in place as he tried to decide whether or not he should say something. Somehow he could tell that something was off. Lance had stopped moving as well, the sound of his armour plates bumping into each other gone. "Lance?" he tried, fingers still frozen around his zipper. He felt tempted to turn around and check for himself, but felt like that might not be a good idea. "Uh…"

"I'm good," Lance suddenly said in a clipped tone, voice oddly flat. "I just didn't… I forgot about the scars for a second." 

The words confused Keith at first. Nowhere in his mind could he find an explanation as to why scars would make Lance sound that way. Until he remembered where some of those scars had come from. "Oh…" Slowly, sluggishly, Keith continued undressing. 

The silence between them had turned into something idle and thick, like a slow-moving fog settling in a forest. They continued changing into their casual clothes, no words exchanged between them, their eyes never meeting. They might as well have been alone in the stuffy little hut. 

Keith was the first out of the hut, dressed in his usual black shirt and red jacket. He met Shiro's eyes from far away, sending him a sympathetic look when he saw the suffering in the Black Paladin's eyes at having to listen to three excited elders at once, the entire time trying desperately to decipher what they were even saying. Even Allura seemed to be having trouble dealing with them. Arms crossed, he heard Lance exit the hut behind him, the other paladin still pulling at his shirt as he stopped beside him. "You good?" he simply asked, glancing at Lance.

Lance finally looked at him, a familiar confident smirk on his face. "Couldn't be better."

Even Keith, who wasn't all that good in the communication department, could tell Lance was lying through his teeth. It made him wonder how much Lance had been lying to all of them since coming back from Persia. "Great." He hadn't intended for it to come out with so much bite and he mentally slapped himself for it when he could see Lance's animosity levels go up almost immediately. "Did you find your radio transmitter?"

"My what?"

Clenching a fist at his side, Keith had to swallow down the frustration already flaring up. "The one Shiro hid for us in our clothes so we could call in case of an emergency."

Immediately, Lance began patting himself down, shoving his hands into his pockets, until his fingers finally closed around something in the inner pocket of his jacket. "Ooooh, that's what he meant. Gotcha." 

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Keith began walking away, back towards where the rest of the team was still struggling to have a conversation with the curious Orak elders. Lance made it a point to catch up to him and essentially start a fast walking race; not quite running, but essentially walking at a pace that might as well be running. Neither won, because they ended up tripping over each other's feet in their attempt to squeeze through the narrow entrance into the gazebo. 

The remaining team heaved a collective sigh at the sight. 

* * *

To say Lance and Keith felt embarrassed would be a huge understatement. Not once in their time at the garrison had they even considered the possibility of sitting cross-legged in front of a fellow pilot, shirtless and with paint on their hands. Lance's right hand was covered in deep purple paint, while Keith's was dipped in more of a jade colour.

_"Hand on heart."_

Taking a second or two to decipher the meaning of those words, Lance shot Keith an uncertain look, slowly mirroring his movement and reaching for the other's chest. The Orak weren't protesting in any way, so he figured they were doing it right. He hesitated in actually making contact, hand briefly hovering over Keith's bare chest, before they both simultaneously pressed a hand against each other's chests, both able to feel the other's heart fluttering against their clammy hands. 

_"Eyes must speak."_

Until then, they had avoided eye contact; now, they couldn't anymore. Gulping, Lance slowly lifted his gaze from where it had been glued to the floor between them, slowly wandering up Keith's body, before stopping at his eyes. Looking back at him was an almost equally unsure gaze filled with both confusion and nervosity. It was oddly electrifying, to be looking so directly into the stormy emotions reflected in those dark eyes.

_"Repeat vow of warriors."_

That made Lance finally speak up. "Wait, in your language or ours?" He had to stop himself from breaking eye contact with Keith to look at the Orak giving them instructions.

 _"Language different, meaning same,"_ the elder replied.

"Uh… okay then." Quietly clearing his throat, Lance tried to somehow silently communicate with Keith to get him to speak at the same time as him. 

_"Fight."_

"Fight," both Keith and Lance repeated, their timing not at all synchronous, their voices ringing out in canon rather than unison.

_"Protect."_

"Protect." 

Still in canon.

_"Together."_

A second of hesitation.

"Together."

 _"Forever,"_ the elder's voice rang out.

This was when they almost broke eye contact. They could so clearly see the hesitation and embarrassment in each other's eyes, the gravity of the words finally hitting them like a freight train.

"Forever."

Perfectly in sync.

_"Good. Release."_

After another moment of hesitation, the two paladins removed their hands and slowly pulled them back, as though moving too fast could somehow anger the Oraks. Almost immediately, they were then both ushered into separate little huts, suddenly surrounded by groups of small aliens all pulling their arms and pushing at their legs to get them to move faster. 

Lance was sat down in a pile of flat pillows, small dishes with dark liquid surrounding him to all sides. Before he even had time to process what was happening, three young Orak were already painting on his arms and chest. Intricate patterns and shapes began blooming over his skin, circling and winding around his limbs like snakes. Allura and Hunk eventually joined him, both standing in the entrance and looking in with bemused smiles.

"This is gonna come off, right?" Lance asked them with a hint of fear in his voice.

Allura gleefully giggled into her hand. If she had a smartphone, she probably would be filming the entire thing. "It should naturally fade away within a few weeks. Consider it a souvenir."

Lance pouted at the revelation, but made sure not to look too displeased. He couldn't quite find it in himself to be all that upset when the Orak seemed so excited painting on him. They looked happy. Somehow, the atmosphere reminded Lance of the many quinceañeras he had had to attend over the course of his life. There was pride, excitement, joy, all mixed up into an atmosphere that made him feel strangely warm inside. At home, almost. 

"How do I say _thank you_ in their language?" he suddenly asked, stumping both Allura and Hunk.

"Well…" After spending a few seconds mulling it over, Allura fiddled around with the translation orb. "Are you sure? Even if the ones in this room are not part of the group–"

"It's fine! Don't worry."  

Hesitating, then nodding silently, Allura then proceeded to try and teach Lance in hushed tones a series of tongue clicks. Before long, Lance was quietly imitating it and causing the surrounding Orak to look at him with what could only be described as curiosity. Somewhat uncertainly, he then turned towards them, eyes sweeping over the little group, before repeating the phrase Allura had just taught him.   

At first, there was silence. The Orak looked to be staring at him, perhaps somewhat stunned. Then there was a loud, excited cacophony of clicks and coos, too many at once for the translation orb to handle. What it gave out in an attempt to translate was some kind of garbled mess of words and vaguely English sounds, completely indecipherable. All Lance knew for sure was that whatever he had said, whether or not it had even come out right, made the Orak happy enough to almost spill paint all over him. They were throwing their little arms into the air, jumping around him and nearly knocking over the little dishes of paint. 

It took a moment for the Orak to finally calm down and soon, they were back to patiently painting complicated, winding patterns all over Lance's torso. Now, they somehow seemed all the more excited to do so, happily chatting with each other and giggling quietly. It helped ease Lance's mind, taking away some of the stress that had built up over the past few hours. 

It almost made him want to stay in this moment forever.

* * *

Lance exited the hut when the sun was beginning to go down, painting the village in reds and oranges. With his clothes finally back on his body, he swept his eyes over the many little huts and structures, finding Shiro, Pidge and Allura off towards the gazebo eating little red fruits. Hunk had stayed with Lance throughout the entire, very lengthy painting process and was stretching behind him, letting out little grunts and sighs. Lance was about to walk towards the gazebo to nab some of those red fruits for himself, when he saw Keith exiting from the hut opposite to his. He couldn't help but study the patterns he could see creeping out of the collar of Keith's shirt, reaching his jaw and lightly spilling over his cheeks in tiny little dots and triangles. Something about the way they were splattered over Keith's pale skin demanded Lance's attention, causing him to stare for much longer than he had planned. There were no mirrors, so it made Lance wonder if his patterns looked the same. He had spaced out for quite some time while getting painted, even begun napping at some point, so he wasn't entirely sure just how extensive the designs on his body were. 

With a confident smirk in place, he briskly walked up to Keith, noting the way the Red Paladin immediately frowned at him when he saw him approach. "So on a scale from ten to ten, how dashing do I look right now?"

Keith didn't even grace him with an answer, instead opting to simply glare at him like he had kicked an entire gaggle of baby geese.

"Hey, hey, no need to fall over your feet trying to compliment me. I _know_ I'm clearly a twelve." 

"You're insufferable," Keith grumbled weakly, scowl easing up into a mildly annoyed look. "You know that, right?"

"You just can't handle this much radiance at once." Shrugging, Lance was about to be highly insulted at the way Keith rolled his eyes, when a thought hit him. "Oh, by the way, did we get married earlier?"

Keith raised his eyebrows at him, shrugging. "Maybe?" In an instant, the frown was back. "I'm not gonna carry you over the threshold or anything."

Now _that_ got Lance's blood pumping. "Hey, if anything, _I'd_ be carrying _your_ skinny ass over the threshold."

"Says the literal beanpole."

Lance let out an offended gasp at the insult, already gearing up for the comeback of the century that would leave Keith a crying, weeping mess for sure, when Shiro interrupted him by suddenly appearing out of thin air like the fairy godmother of party-pooping.

"You guys ready?" Shiro asked nonchalantly. "You're supposed to head out once it starts getting dark."

"As ready as I can be, I guess," Keith replied.

" _More_ than ready." Lance's smirk widened when he saw Keith narrowing his eyes at him.

Shiro sent them a _look_ , shooing them back towards the village entrance. They walked there in silence for the most part, mindful of the many eyes watching their every movement. Small lanterns had been lit, warm, flickering lights lining their path now. They could already see Allura and the others waiting for them at the entrance, prompting Lance to jog the rest of the way so he could sneak up behind Hunk and scare the living daylights out of him. After Hunk's high-pitched squawk of surprise, Lance's amused laughter rang out loud and clearly. He tried muffling it with a hand, but didn't quite succeed. It made Keith shake his head slightly and grumble something under his breath, causing Shiro to smile to himself. 

"You two know what to do?" Shiro asked them once both Lance and Keith were standing at the entrance gate, ready to head out into the wilderness. 

"Find one of those legendary beasts?" Lance replied somewhat uncertainly.

"And defeat it," Keith added.

"Right. Good." Shiro nodded, arms crossed and expression all business. "Lance, you have the knife I gave you?"

"Yeah, right here." Lance pushed back his jacket to reveal the sheathed knife attached to his belt.

"Good, good." Nodding again, Shiro's face finally seemed to relax slightly. "Then I guess it's time to say goodbye." Finally, he smiled a warm and reassuring smile, one that radiated comfort. "Be careful out there. And make sure to come back in one piece."

"Immediately call us should you find yourself in a dangerous situation," Allura added, concern shining clearly in her azure eyes. "We cannot afford to lose two paladins."

Lance was about to respond with something to swoon the princess, already puffing his chest out slightly and putting on his most winning smile, when he noticed the way Hunk was looking at him. His cocky smile almost instantly melted into a fond one. "Hey, dude, I'm not gonna die or anything."

"But–"

"I won't," Lance reassured him, patting the taller teen on the arm. 

"Do you really have to do this?" Hunk asked with his shoulders still slumped, his entire demeanour oozing sadness; almost like a sad puppy.

Smile wavering slightly, Lance nodded. He wanted to say more, anything to make Hunk look less worried and sad, but he didn't trust his voice enough at the moment. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Shiro and Keith speaking to each other in hushed tones. Eventually, Keith nodded and made to leave, which prompted Lance to quickly do so as well. He waved at his team for the last time, before him and Keith walked out into the dark forest, the gate to the bustling village slowly creaking shut behind them. There was a second in which Lance could see both Allura's and Pidge's faces fall, matching the concerned expression Hunk was maintaining.

Lance faltered in his steps once he heard the dull thud of the gate shutting completely, but quickly caught back up with Keith. He had the urge to somehow bicker with the other, even if just to lighten the atmosphere, but he still felt like his voice was trapped in his throat. 

And so the two paladins walked in silence, the forest rapidly growing darker and darker around them. Slowly, the muffled noises surrounding them grew louder, closer. As though the forest was coming alive with the night approaching. 

"We should probably find a safe place to make camp soon."

Lance had almost forgotten Keith was even there. It was getting so dark, he could barely see the other paladin right next to him. "Yeah. You're probably right. I don't feel safe out here in the dark. Can't see shit." He watched Keith walk ahead of him for only a few seconds, before suddenly stumbling over a thick root in his path. "How do you even know where to go? It's dark as shit."

"What're you talking about?" Keith turned to send an incredulous look at Lance. "It's not _that_ dark. Are you blind?"

A realisation suddenly hit Lance, making him take in a sharp breath. "Oh…"

That only caused Keith's eyebrows to curl into a confused frown. " _Oh?_ "

Lance sheepishly buried his hands in his pockets, never meeting Keith's intense gaze. "I think I'm kinda… blind… in the dark."

Keith stopped. "What?"

The flat yet sharp tone caused Lance to shrink in on himself slightly. "I-It was mostly a problem when I was a kid, but then it went away and I was fine, so it never was an issue at the garrison, but I guess it's back now? I don't know, okay! I don't know why it's back suddenly!" Even without seeing it, he knew Keith was looking at him like he wanted to murder him. He definitely heard him let out a frustrated sigh.

"Okay," he simply said, taking a deep breath. "Okay." Keith didn't say anything for a few seconds, shifting around where he stood. "So… what? Do we need to hold hands like kindergarteners now so you won't trip and crack your head open?"

"No!" Lance immediately barked indignantly.

"Then _what_?" 

Mirroring Keith's frustrated sigh, Lance cursed his own body for betraying him at such an important time. And while he was with Keith of all people. "I don't know."

Keith huffed to himself, before abruptly turning around. "Grab on to my jacket or something then, I don't care. We need to get someplace safe _fast_." 

"I know that," Lance bit back weakly, a deep frown on his face as he reluctantly twisted his fingers into the red material of Keith's jacket. He wordlessly walked behind Keith as they made their way through the rapidly darkening forest. Even Lance, unable to discern larger shapes from each other at this point, could tell it was still getting darker. "This is almost worse than hand-holding." 

"How?" Keith asked, the confused frown audible in his voice.

"I saw this jacket-holding bullshit in a rom-com anime once," Lance said with a displeased pout. "Good anime, shitty trope." 

"Why's it shitty?"

"Cause we're doing it right now!" He wasn't completely sure if he heard it right, but Lance was convinced he heard Keith snort. 

Their way through the forest continued at a crawling pace. Even after ten more minutes, it felt like they had barely moved away from very area they had started in. It took a while to cut through some of the plants with just the small knives they had and more than once, Lance bemoaned their lack of a proper machete. And still, the forest was getting darker and darker and even Keith was beginning to stumble on his way. 

Lance would have laughed at him if he wasn't so close to falling on his face practically every second. Not even an hour in and already he was somewhat thankful to have Keith there; he would have been completely boned by himself. The only thing he could still see clearly was Keith: the red of his jacket, the movement of his shoulders as he fought his way through the thicket, the slight sheen of sweat on the back of his neck, dampening his hair and making it stick to his skin. It was kind of comforting. 

"So why do you think the Orak have beef with the Velonians?" Lance suddenly asked, eyes roaming over the dark, vaguely tree-like shapes surrounding him to all sides. "They don't seem like bad folk. I wonder what happened."

"Maybe Velonians throw annoyingly loud parties every Friday night."

Lance responded with absolute silence, too stunned for his brain to really register Keith's words. "Wait, was that a joke?!"

Sighing angrily, Keith mumbled a quiet "Yes". 

Another beat of silence. Then Lance broke out into badly suppressed chuckles, hand almost slipping off Keith's jacket. He was about to tease the other for being embarrassed over his own joke, when Lance abruptly went quiet. "You hear that?"

Keith came to a stop, hand halting mid-air where it had been about to slice through a few vines blocking their way. "Hear what?" 

"Water."

"What? Where?"

"Right there!" Lance pointed towards his right, letting go of Keith's jacket to run off to where he could hear the blissful sound of rushing water. He could almost _feel_ it, as though it was calling to him, beckoning him. It was like a pull, like some kind of force urging him to come.

"Hey!" Keith shouted, running after him. "I thought you can't see any–"

In that moment, Lance shrieked as he suddenly stumbled and fell. But even after hitting the ground, he didn't stop falling. He kept rolling and rolling and finally he realised that he was falling down a hill. The smell of dewy forest plants and fresh soil was suddenly all-encompassing, almost taking over all his senses. Luckily, the hill was padded by the sheer amount of foliage covering every inch of it, so safe for a few scratches, he made it to the bottom without any injuries. He groaned as he shook leaves from his hair, hearing a few bones and joints pop when he sat upright. He could hear Keith sliding down the hill behind him, most likely much more gracefully than he had. Lance had a quip ready at the tip of his tongue, something that would hopefully restore some of his pride, but it died in his throat when he heard the loud, crashing sound of water. 

"How…" Keith mumbled, stunned.

Eyes widening, Lance took in the sight of the massive waterfall stretching up into a mountain that seemed to reach into the sky. Despite being nearly blind, he could still tell how enormous it was, the spray from where it hit the water even reaching them at the riverbed. "Let's go behind the waterfall!" he suddenly shouted, excitedly jumping to his feet. "There might be a cave we can sleep in or something!"

"Is that something Bear Grylls did?"

Immediately, Lance's demeanour calmed. "Uh… no…"

"Then why do you think there's gonna be a cave?"

Lance pointedly avoided Keith's questioning gaze. "Cause of… Zelda…"

"Lance…" Keith sighed, a warning to his tone.

"Trust me!" 

"Are you serious?"

"Let's at least try!" 

Shaking his head, another sigh tore from Keith's chest. "Fine. I don't care. Not like we could die here or anything." He reluctantly followed behind as Lance excitedly scampered away, only to slip on the damp rocks next to the river. 

Within seconds, Lance had his head in the waterfall, laughter shaking his entire frame as the water rushed over his body. He was yelling something, but it was entirely unintelligible through the deafening sound of the water crashing. Keith ended up yanking him back out by his jacket. 

"Stop screaming into the water," the Red Paladin sighed. "We don't have time for this."

"Yeah, yeah…" Lance shook him off and made to climb up the rocks next to the waterfall. "I'll go check the waterfall. Make a torch while I'm gone."

"What? How?!" 

"Your lion is the fire one, isn't it? Just use some of your… fire… magic." Lance didn't have to check to know of the exasperated look on Keith's face. "Just use some bark or sap or something. It's not that hard."

Before Keith had a chance to chuck profanities at the other, Lance was already climbing up the rocks faster than Keith could even keep up. He would glance around to check their surroundings for only a moment, then look back at Lance and find him halfway up that rock wall. It was kind of impressive. Lance didn't seem fazed in the least by how wet the rocks were or the fact that if he fell from that height, he could easily break a bone or two. To say it tickled Keith's competitive nature would be an understatement. 

A determined frown settled on Keith's face as he marched off towards the thick forest. It took a few minutes of struggling and cursing, but eventually he had assembled a make-shift torch with a branch and a few strips of tree bark. Satisfied, he made his way back to the waterfall while rummaging through his pouch.

"Oh, dude!" Lance yelled once he spotted him. He was back on even ground and entirely soaked, clothes dripping with water, wet hair matted to his forehead. "There really _is_ a cave behind the waterfall!"

"Are you serious?" Keith replied, stunned. "You're shitting me."

"Hey, Zelda's great at teaching you how to find secret stuff." Shrugging, Lance's smirk remained unwavering. "Your torch looks like shit."

"Sorry for not having a torch-making kit on hand." Keith thrust the torch at Lance, cocking an eyebrow when he was met with confusion. "What?"

"Uh…" Lance pushed the torch back towards Keith. "The torch is your job. Light it."

Frowning again, a sharp sigh left Keith as he reluctantly continued rummaging through his pouch. "I'm sure I should have it in her– There!" With a triumphant grin, he pulled out a lighter and wasted no time in lighting the torch with it. After a frustrated growl or two, he finally managed to get the bark to catch fire, eventually spreading it to the entire top end of the makeshift torch. "It's lit," he said, smirking at how displeased Lance seemed with his non-survivalist method of creating fire. "What now?"

"We catch fish," Lance grumbled. "Come on, gimme that." He snatched the torch from Keith, then headed over to the river. "I'll hold the torch, you shank any fish that come checking out the light."

"Sure…" If this was anyone else, Keith would have complemented them on their ingenuity, or at the very least, their ability to retain knowledge learned from a Discovery Channel survival show. But this was Lance, so all he did was not argue with him. He wordlessly did as he was told, followed Lance and carefully kneeled down at the edge of the river. 

"I can't see shit, so you'll just have to stab the water on your own." 

Keith simply grumbled back, already intently staring at the surface of the water. With the waterfall constantly sending out ripples all over the water, at first it was nigh impossible to see anything, the water black and slightly murky. But eventually, Keith's eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough that he could see faint movement under the surface. With all his senses zoning in on those tiny shadows of movement, Keith could almost _hear_ the fish under the surface. 

Lance jumped a little when Keith's arm suddenly shot forward, his knife slicing through the water in one swift motion. His face lit up when the other proceeded to pull something fish-looking out of the water. "Is that our dinner?"

"Uh… um…" Keith went a little pale looking at the slimy, four-eyed, worm-like creature currently writhing around in his hand. "I'm not sure either of us could stomach this."

"What?"

"You don't wanna know. Trust me." Suddenly, Keith was envious of Lance's night blindness. "I'll just try again."

Lance simply shrugged, too tired to argue with Keith. He simply continued holding the torch, listening to the sound of Keith breathing, struggling to somehow make out what exactly he was doing. To Lance it was pitch-black all around him, as though they were in a deep, dark cave. Only the fire of the torch made his immediate surroundings slightly visible, otherwise he would be sitting in black nothingness. The only thing grounding him at all was Keith's presence next to him.   

"I don't think this is getting us anywhere," Keith said after catching a few more creatures, pulling away from the river's edge. "I keep catching stuff that doesn't look even vaguely edible."

"How would you know if it's edible or not?" Lance shot back.

"If you wanna eat baby Jabba, fine, go ahead. I'm not stopping you."

"Okay, maybe not…"

For a moment, they both sat in silence, contemplating what to do next. It was getting darker by the minute, too dark to stay out here much longer.

"We should probably go sleep," Keith eventually broke the silence. "No use trying to find food now."

"Aw man, I haven't had anything decent since breakfast this morning!" Lance immediately whined. Reluctantly, he followed Keith as he stood up and headed for the waterfall. Or at least, he tried. He couldn't even walk three steps before he slipped and painfully landed on his butt. Letting out a string of hissed curses, he slowly got back to his feet. By this point, he was entirely disoriented, Keith the one with the torch and now walking somewhere in front of him with it. "Uh… Keith?"

"What–? Oh…" Apparently Keith had forgotten about Lance's predicament. Sighing a bit, he made his way back to Lance, the light of the torch growing bigger as he approached. "Grab on."

Lance had to blindly grab at the air before his hands finally found the back of Keith's jacket. Slowly, they then made their way back to the waterfall like that, Lance occasionally slipping and catching himself on Keith, who never commented on it. Lance knew that if their roles were reversed, he wouldn't have let Keith hear the end of it, _ever_. 

"So… how do we get up there?" the Red Paladin questioned.

Lance bumped into Keith's back when the other suddenly came to a stop, a displeased little groan leaving his throat as he rubbed his aching nose. "We climb up, what else?"

"Can you do that? It's even darker now."

"Climbing is much easier than walking," Lance replied, already trying to find a good place on the rock wall to start climbing. "I can just feel it out, ya know. Don't have to see anything to know what to do." 

"That's… actually kinda impressive."

Lance tried not to sound too flattered when he answered. "I used to sneak out with a couple kids in my neighbourhood at night and climb walls like this to get to a secret hideout in the woods. You get used to it after a while." 

Keith simply hummed in response, seemingly remaining on the ground to see if Lance really wasn't going to fall. Only after Lance was halfway up the wall, clearly fine on his own, did he follow after him. He struggled much more than Lance, hands and feet slipping off the rocks quite a few times. Keith always only barely held on, but eventually he made it and was able to heave himself into the little cave behind the waterfall. 

It was smaller than expected, not much bigger than their rooms in the Castle. But it shielded them from the wind and protected them from any predators. They would be able to get a few hours of sleep in without having to worry about getting maimed. To Keith's surprise, Lance had apparently already set up a small campfire of sorts. 

"I really didn't think having a Bear Grylls fanatic with me would be so useful," he admitted. Keith then watched the series of emotions flashing across Lance's face one after another: surprise, confusion, something akin to joy, then finally, anger. 

"Hey, I'm not a _fanatic_! I just appreciate his work!"

Keith flinched a little at how high-pitched Lance voice got, to the point of being painful, especially in such a small space. "Ouch."

"Jerk."

After smirking to himself, Keith proceeded to wordlessly light the small campfire between them, letting out a content smile once the small flames began licking at the wood. They eventually engulfed it in its entirety and lit up the entire cave, radiating warmth. Another silence settled between them, the two paladins getting comfortable in their respective corners of the small, clammy cave. They left each other to their own thoughts and musings, listening as the fire crackled and the water rushed down beside them.

Keith was jerked out of his train of thought when his eyes fell on Lance after a while, who suddenly looked… nervous? "Lance?"

No answer.

"Lance?" Keith tried again, straightening up now. He could see sweat beading on the other paladin's forehead, but whether it was because of the fire or because of something else, he couldn't tell.

Still, no answer.

"Lance!"

Lance flinched, eyes flitting around nervously, before finally settling on Keith. "Hu– What?" 

"You were spacing out."

"Oh… sorry."

Keith was somewhat befuddled at the unusually subdued demeanour. "Uh… no, it's fine." He watched Lance for a moment, noticing that whatever was making Lance look so anxious was not subsiding. "What're you thinking about?"

"Nothing," Lance immediately answered, voice a tad too forceful. He then briefly met Keith's eyes, the light of the fire dancing over his face in abstract shapes. "I just… dunno. Don't think I can sleep."

Raking a hand through his hair, Keith sighed. "Same here." When his eyes connected with Lance's again, he suddenly felt like he understood what this was about. "Why can't you sleep?"

Lance simply shrugged, pulling his legs up to his chest. "There are no distractions when you're trying to sleep. You're just… alone with yourself." He went silent, dropping his head onto his knees. "What about you?"

Keith mirrored Lance and shrugged, leaning further into a wall. "The usual." The answer seemed almost unfairly simple, so Keith felt pressed to elaborate. "It probably started when I lived in that shack. The insomnia, I mean. You can't really feel at ease out there, ya know. I kept feeling Blue too, so I got used to just staying awake for long times in case another strong signal came in." When there was no response, Keith began watching Lance. Immediately, it was clear the other was drifting off again, thinking about something unrelated to their current situation. Keith couldn't be certain if it was just the fire playing tricks on his eyes, but Lance looked unusually sickly. Now that he could actually, truly look at him, not having to worry about finding shelter or Lance dropping into some kind of hole, he was able to see the sheer exhaustion written all over the other paladin's face. The flicker of the fire almost made the shadows under his eyes look even worse, his usually glowing skin dull. "You sure you're okay?"

Composure faltering at the question, Lance suddenly hunched his shoulders, hands coming up to bury his face in them. They were shaking. "I'm not. I'm really not." A shaky sigh tore from his throat, betraying just how unsettled he was.

Completely at a loss, Keith awkwardly shifted around where he sat. "Should I… do somethi–?"

"No! No, just…" Lance took a moment to collect himself, the shaking slowly calming back down again. "Don't tell the others, okay?"

Keith didn't answer immediately, instead watching as Lance slowly regained his composure. "I won't." Awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, Keith racked his brain for things he could say. "Do you wanna, you know… talk about it? Or something?"

A sharp sigh left Lance. "No… This is so lame. I don't wanna be like this." He had buried his face in his hands again, but slowly peeked through his fingers to find Keith shooting a questioning look at him. It was obvious he wanted to talk. 

Lance was someone who needed to talk all the time, about anything and everything. He would talk for the sake of talking, because it was fun to communicate with other people, because talking filled up the silence that otherwise permeated the enormous Castle of Lions. But when it came down to it, when it came to actual, real issues, he would shut down. He didn't like sharing his true anxieties and struggles with others. He didn't like showing weakness in front of other people. Especially Keith. But this was a situation where Keith knew what he was struggling with. There was no point in hiding it. They both now knew how much the events in Persia had messed with him; Keith just didn't know the full story.

"I'm mad that I can't just… turn my brain off," Lance eventually admitted, straightening up slightly to at least maintain some semblance of his usual bravado. "That I can't make it stop replaying these memories over and over and over again. I _know_ I'm not in Persia anymore, but it keeps bringing me back there and I don't wanna be there and I just…" 

Stunned at the nearly overwhelming pain in Lance's eyes, Keith sucked in a sharp breath, almost afraid to say another word. But he had to. "What happened… in Persia?" Immediately, Keith regretted asking. He could see every bit of anguish and torment pooling in the other's eyes at the question, Lance curling in on himself slightly, as though trying to somehow protect himself or run away.

"Don't ask," he eventually said, quietly, with sharp certainty.

Still feeling incredibly conflicted, Keith simply nodded. He then watched as Lance turned onto his side and laid down, effectively ending their conversation for good. Keith followed his example a moment later and tried to make himself comfortable on the hard floor.

Somehow, they both managed to fall asleep.

Little did they know that outside, deep inside the dark forest, something was stalking through the shadows of the trees, watching their every move, listening to their conversations. 

Waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope the tonal shift wasn't too drastic. There was a point where I thought about splitting this story into two seperate ones, a two-part story type thing, but I ultimately decided against it. 
> 
> Next chapter should be up in a week!


	9. Tachycardia

Keith was drifting in a quiet place somewhere between wakefulness and sleep, not quite dreaming, but not quite awake either. He was at peace, mind languidly wandering and going in circles, never quite manifesting any real, perceivable thoughts. 

At least until he heard a loud growling noise.

He shot up from where he had been lying flat on the rocky ground, knife already in hand and entire body strung like a bow. He frantically searched the still semi-dark cave for possible enemies, some kind of animal that could have made that sound. 

"Relax, man, it's just me," Lance suddenly grumbled, muffled voice still laced with sleep.

Letting out the breath he had been holding in, Keith could feel the tension drain out of him and lowered his knife. "What was that noise?"

"I haven't eaten anything in a while, okay." Clearly, Lance was not a morning person. "What're we gonna do about that, huh? How do we know _anything_ on this planet is edible for us? What if we don't find anything and we just starve here cause I'm a dumbass and I had to try and somehow fix things and…?"

"What?"

Lance tensed up as though he had said something he wasn't supposed to, suddenly hesitant. "Forget about it." 

Keith watched Lance for a moment, but the silence between them didn't dissipate. Eventually, he got up from the ground, dusted himself off and began making his way towards the opening of the cave. "We'll find some food, don't worry."

Walking up to stand beside Keith, Lance shot a doubtful look at the other. As though he wasn't quite sure how to interpret his words. "Are you… trying to comfort me?"

"Uh… I guess so?" Keith replied, already sticking his head out of the cave. "Why?" 

"No, um… thanks. I guess." Sheepishly scratching the back of his head, Lance flinched a little when Keith suddenly turned towards him.

"How are we getting down?" Keith hissed, a hint of panic to his voice. "I couldn't see it that well when it was dark, but that drop looks dangerous. If we fall, we're dead."

Lance eyed the aforementioned drop and shrugged. "We could just jump."

"Are you insane?" Keith snapped immediately. "You can jump all you want. I'll be staying here and watching your body explode the second it hits that water."

"We're not _that_ high up," Lance argued. "And we're not the dumb blonde that dies first in a trashy splatter movie."

" _Dead_. Both of us."

"Drama queen."

"Reckless moron."

The two paladins angrily glared at each other for a moment, sparks flying as they took in each other's exasperated expressions. Keith immediately felt a shudder go down his spine when he watched Lance's expression suddenly morph into something so smug and mischievous, he knew immediately something bad was going to happen.

"Stay straight and keep your arms close to your body."

"Lance, I swear I will kill you if you–!" Before Keith could even get the words out, Lance was already pushing him. He tried finding something to hold on to, but with Lance quickly stepping out of his reach, all he could grab at was air – Keith definitely did _not_ let out an incredibly girlish screech at that. And so he dropped out of the cave, the water below fast approaching. Recalling Lance's words, he made an effort to stay straight, but managed only barely. He hit the water knees first, the impact stinging slightly even through his pants. 

Then he was surrounded on all sides by water. There was no up or down, he didn't know how his body was oriented. He swam around blindly, searching for where he could see light. A moment later, he burst through the surface of the water gasping for air, frantically slicking back his wet hair so he could see. He flinched when Lance suddenly dropped in beside him like a canon ball, splashing up an explosion of water. Lance practically burst out of the water a moment later, beaming, a shit-eating grin stretching over his entire face. "Lance, you asshole!" Keith immediately screamed, getting the other into a semi-headlock. 

Lance never stopped laughing the entire time. Even with Keith literally trying to choke him to death, he was cackling mirthfully, with joy and childish glee. It made Keith eventually soften his hold, his ire quickly fizzing out with Lance so engrossed in his little one-man-party.

"You should've seen your face!" 

Frowning, Keith splashed a large handful of water at Lance, which seemed to finally get his attention. "I hate you."

"You fucking _adore_ me! Just admit it." That earned Lance another handful of water slapping him in the face. He finally retaliated by playfully slapping water at Keith as well. 

Keith stared back at him silently, water dripping from his hair. Then a full out brawl ensued. They splashed water around, shoved each other underwater, tried getting the other into headlocks to gain the upper hand. As soon as they reached shallow water, things heated up even more. They would trip each other, laughing when the other fell, and proceeded to kick water at each other. At some point, they ended up near the waterfall again, standing underneath a smooth, overarching rock formation that acted as a roof of sorts. The teal water was shallow and only reached up to their chests, snow-white foam dancing over the surface. Both were out of breath and exhausted. And still, Lance was cackling.

"This is such a shit show," he laughed. "We should be searching for food, but we're still here playing in the water."

Keith was about to reply, a jab at the tip of his tongue, but he found himself distracted. Too mesmerising were the drops of water running down the side of Lance's nose, over his lips and along his chin and finally down his slender neck. He watched as they disappeared into his collar and finally noticed that Lance's white shirt was wet and completely translucent, the tattoo-like designs splayed over his skin showing through. He gulped.

Lance, meanwhile, was still happily chattering away. "Hey, Keith, we should probably start–" Warmth. That was the first thing he felt. It was an oddly sweet warmth, one that seemed to wrap itself around his entire body, curling around his limbs and sending pleasant tingles down all his nerve endings. Then there was heat. It coiled in his guts, slowly crawling through the rest of his body and scorching everything in its path.

Keith was kissing him.

Keith was kissing him, his hands sliding around Lance's waist to pull him closer, his palms pressing into his body feeling as though they would sear through his skin. The smile that had stretched across Lance's face slowly melted away as Keith's warm lips slid over his, the taste of his breath warm and sweet. A few moments passed in which Lance stood entirely rigid, as though frozen in place; his eyes shone with a mix of confusion and uncertainty. It took a while, but when Lance slowly eased up, Keith let out a small sigh and deepened the kiss even further. Both of his gloved hands wandered up to cup Lance's face, fingertips burying in his wet hair and sending a rush of pleasant tingles down his spine. Even the loud crashing of the waterfall couldn't drown out the small moan Lance released in response. 

Abruptly, Lance broke away from Keith's lips, stepping out of his reach and watching as the other's hands hovered in the air for a moment, before dropping slowly. Lance's mind was reeling. His heart was racing violently, ears burning, lungs feeling too small. What was he supposed to do in this situation? "Why…?" He couldn't even meet Keith's eyes.

Lance never gave Keith a chance to answer. Within seconds he was out of the water, quickly walking away into the forest. His body suddenly felt foreign. Like it wasn't his. Walking was arduous, legs feeling numb and his arms heavy. 

"Lance!"

He could hear Keith bursting out of the water, rushing to come after him. But he didn't stop. 

"Lance, wait!"

Lance wanted to break out into a sprint so badly, but his body wouldn't listen. It felt as though he was walking through a thick fog, unable to see where he was even going. 

Suddenly, a hand closed around Lance's arm and he was pulled back. Then, more gently, he was slowly turned around. Still, he couldn't meet Keith's eyes.

"Lance, I–!"

"Why?"

Thrown off by the curt tone, Keith took a moment to answer. "I…" Keith released a somewhat frustrated sigh, awkwardly shifting around where he stood. "I don't know. I just wanted to."

The answer immediately sent a piercing ray of anger through Lance. "That's it?" he barked, yet again shaking off Keith's hold. "You just _felt like it_ and that's why you make out with me out of nowhere?!"

Keith was silent for a long moment. He was clenching and unclenching his fists, clearly agitated. "I'm sorry, okay. It just sorta… happened."

Immediately, flashes of twisted smirks and shadowy hands running over his body assaulted Lance's mind. He couldn't quite suppress the tremor running through his body at the jumbled memory. "So you _are_ crushing on me, huh?" He tried to inject his usual bravado and confidence into his voice, but it came out shaky and uncertain, easily giving away how he truly felt: angry, nervous. _Scared_.

"I'm _not_!"

"You're _still_ gonna deny it?" Lance barked. "You–!"

"I don't know, man!" Keith cut him off, throwing his arms up. "What if I was?! What then?" 

Lance felt taken aback by the intensity in Keith's eyes; as though he was ready to fight this out if need be. "What do you mean _what_? Nothing, okay! Nothing would happen!"

An annoyed frown took over Keith's face. "I don't get why you're making such a huge fuss," he said, crossing his arms. "It's just a kiss. No big deal."

Keith was right. Lance's reaction was abnormal. Normal Lance would, if anything, awkwardly try to weasel his way out of this conversation with a fake smile and blown up confidence, eyes constantly on the ground because he wouldn't be able to even look at Keith. Normal Lance would try his darnedest to somehow play things off, desperate for the event to just become an insignificant moment of the past.

But he wasn't _normal Lance_ anymore.   

Having Keith suddenly approach him like that terrified Lance to no end. Deep down, he knew why. He knew _exactly_ why. But he didn't want to admit it, even to himself. And so he buried his emotions, locked away any lingering, uncertain thoughts.

"You're not a…" Keith suddenly spoke up, breaking the long silence. "Do you just hate…?"

Even with Keith trailing off like that, the conflicted frown on his face gave away what he was trying to ask. And it damn near made Lance snap. He sucked in a sharp breath, ready to unleash hell on Keith, when a realisation hit him. _This is my out_. "Sure, yeah, I fucking hate gay people, okay. Can't stand 'em. Disgusting. So don't ever touch me again." With that, he turned and marched away again, not even waiting to see Keith's reaction. As long as Keith didn't question him any further, anything was fine.

Lance's heart was still pounding as he made his way through the forest. It was a miracle he could even walk, let alone stand, considering how much his legs were shaking. He could still hear Keith walking behind him, following him silently. Not knowing Keith's reaction was agonising. Was Keith gay? Had Lance just verbally assaulted someone for being gay? The thought tortured him. But no matter how much pain it caused him, he couldn't turn around to tell Keith the truth. He couldn't tell him the real reason the kiss upset him so much. 

The sound of a branch cracking made Lance jump, causing him to stop in his tracks, eyes frantically searching the semi-dark forest surrounding him to all sides. Whatever had just cracked was thick, too thick to simply break on its own. Something large and heavy had broken it. Biting his lip nervously, Lance continued walking again. No other suspicious sounds reached his ears and so he decided not to pay it too much mind. Keith was still following after him and he wasn't saying anything either. That meant they were fine, right? 

"Lance."

Keith's voice cut through Lance like a thin razor blade, cold and biting. He stopped, slowly turning to find Keith looking at him with a wary frown.

"Don't move." 

"What?" Lance went still despite not knowing the reason why, eyes never leaving Keith's as he listened intently to the sounds of the forest. That was when he finally heard it. 

The sound of breathing.

It was low and rumbly, like an old truck slowly making its way through a dark alleyway. Something was circling them in the forest, going back and forth, never stopping in one spot. It was big. Large enough to break thick branches as it paced, yet never appearing anywhere where they could clearly see it. 

"What's it doing?" Lance hissed, unwittingly gravitating to where Keith was. 

"Watching us. Waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

Keith slowly stepped closer to Lance, pressing their backs together. "For us to turn our backs to it."

Lance sucked in a surprised breath, eyes darting through the forest again. Still, he couldn't see anything. Only now did he notice that the usual orchestra of typical forest sounds was gone. No chirping, screeching, distant howling or even rustling. As though no other creature was alive, as though the forest had died and only the two paladins and this predator were left. The warmth of Keith against his back was the only thing grounding Lance, the only thing keeping him from dissolving into a nervous mess. Every single muscle in his body felt tensed up, adrenaline rushing through his system. Despite the day having just begun, with sunlight shining down from above, the forest suddenly looked incredibly dark and forlorn. The canopies above were dense enough to block out almost all light, casting the entire forest in constant half shadow.

The second something gleamed back at him from within that inky darkness, Lance felt his entire body go cold. At first, he wasn't entirely sure what he was even seeing. But as it moved, it finally clicked. 

 _Eyes_.

"Keith…" he whispered, voice barely audible. "It's looking at me."

"Don't look away," Keith immediately urged. "Otherwise it's gonna think you're easy prey."

"But…" Gulping, Lance nearly collapsed into Keith. There was no way he could keep this up. His entire body was shaking now, heart pounding so hard he was afraid it would break his ribcage. 

Those eyes looked neither human nor animal. They were otherworldly, indescribably disturbing. Even with the wide variety of aliens Lance had encountered so far, those glowing eyes were entirely incomprehensible. Lance didn't have to see the actual creature to know that those eyes meant only one thing: a quick death.

The eyes suddenly disappeared, the darkness of the forest swallowing them back up. The rustling of leaves and the cracking of more foliage accompanied the creature as it moved. 

Eery silence began to take over again.

Soon enough, Lance couldn't hear or see anything suspicious anymore.

"I think it left," Keith said, slowly letting himself relax and sheathing the knife he had pulled out. "Good thing it didn't attack us. I'm not sure if we would've made it." He seemed tense for only a moment longer, before easing up and letting out a small sigh.

With the threat suddenly vanished, Lance let out a long, deep sigh, knees buckling as he dropped to the ground. 

"You okay?" Keith asked.

Lance couldn't get his voice to work at first. It felt as though his throat had been sewn shut, the air trapped in his lungs. Keith was looking down at him with a mix of confusion and slight concern, causing Lance to gulp. "How did you know how to act?"

Listlessly blinking back at him for a moment, Keith eventually shrugged. "I was living out in the desert by myself back on Earth, remember?"

That didn't quite answer Lance's question. "Uh…" Cocking his head slightly, Lance's eyebrows curled into a confused frown.

"Coyotes? Cougars? _Bears_?" Keith elaborated, shooting an expectant look at the other, seemingly waiting for it to click. "You gotta be prepared."

"Oh… right…" Lance had almost forgotten that little tidbit of information. Keith essentially living in exile did explain quite a few oddities to his personality. Namely his _independence_. "So did you ever, ya know… fight a bear or something?"

"Well, no. The worst that ever happened was a coyote peeing in my shoes while I was asleep."

Lance lapsed into stunned silence for only a second, before simultaneously spitting and laughing. 

"I liked those shoes…"

The mumbled add-on only sent Lance further into hysterics, so far that he ended up quite literally rolling on the ground laughing. Once his stomach and sides were throbbing with pain, he forced his laughter to calm down, still giggling as he got back on his feet and wiped tears from his eyes. "I'll treasure that image."

"Uh… you're welcome?"

Lance felt a sudden pang of fondness at Keith's complete lack of understanding of hyperboles or, sometimes, even sarcasm. "Hey… wait a minute…" A sudden realisation hit Lance, causing his grin to instantly vanish, replaced by a look of horror. "Aren't we supposed to kill that thing?"

Keith's jaw twitched, as though he wanted to reply, but the words seemed stuck. Suddenly, his eyes widened. " _That_ was the big sacred thing?!"

Completely forgotten was their earlier conflict. It suddenly dawned on them that to accomplish their mission, to get out of this _alive_ , they would have to face an enemy that could probably easily eradicate most of Earth's predators. Lions, bears, sharks. None of those could even hold a candle to this thing. And they were supposed to fight it armed only with knives.

Their eyes met, both knowing now what was ahead of them. They could see the uneasiness in each other's eyes.

* * *

Tucked away inside a tree's luscious canopy, Lance and Keith sat watching the forest around them, waiting to see if the beast was still tailing them. Sunlight peaked through little gaps in the lush leaves, little specks of light enveloping the two paladins. 

"You think it's gone?" Lance eventually broke the silence, voice quiet.

Keith's eyes seemed stuck on the same spot somewhere in the forest, never straying far enough to be anywhere near Lance. "Could be. Might just be hiding somewhere. Waiting for us to give it a chance to attack."

Lance briefly ran his eyes over Keith's tense face, before hastily glancing away again. "Great."

Things between them were still awkward. Neither of them had the energy to bring up their fight from earlier, much less resolve it. With an alien predator stalking them, it wasn't the time for it either. There was an unspoken agreement between them to put their issues aside in favour of completing their mission and getting out alive. At least for now.

With his empty stomach beginning to twist and clench almost painfully, Lance was in no mood to sit around much longer. "So do we just… sneak up on it?"

Keith almost immediately shook his head. "It'll notice us way before we notice _it_." He went silent for a moment, eyes finally moving to other parts of the forest. "We'll just have to make it come to us."

"And then?"

For the first time in two hours, for the first time after fleeing to the safety of the treetops, Keith's eyes met Lance's. There was an indecipherable heaviness to the look in his eyes, something idle, yet stormy. Clenching his fists, Keith almost immediately looked away again. "I kind of have an idea on how to attack it. If it's anything like predators back on Earth, at least. It's smart and it won't just easily let us attack it anywhere that would be fatal." Their eyes met again and yet again, that indecipherable look. "So we'll have to direct its attention to where it won't notice someone attacking. It might react to erratic movement, something running away from it." 

When Lance only responded with a confused frown, Keith's expression grew pinched. "Wait, you mean–"

"Yeah," Keith cut him off. "Someone needs to be a decoy."

Lance gulped. His throat felt incredibly parched all of a sudden, making swallowing painful. He knew what Keith was implying and he was everything _but_ happy with it. Keith was the ace pilot, the best fighter in their team. It was obvious who would have to be the decoy. "O-Okay. I'll do it."

"You sure?"

Slowly, Lance nodded, a deep frown taking over his face. Even if he tried fighting that thing, he doubted he would make it out alive. If anyone could take it on, it was Keith.

"We can still radio the others and have them pick us up," Keith suddenly rambled. "We'd be out of here within a couple hours."

"No, I… I have to do this."

"Why?"

Seeing the genuine concern clearly displayed on Keith's face, Lance's lips quirked up into a thin smile. "I kind of… murdered a lot of Orak, you know. I just… I didn't think–"

"They were attacking you and you defeated them. I don't see where the problem is."

The answer stunned Lance for a moment, before another weak smile curled his lips. "Has anyone close to you ever died?"

Keith looked slightly suspicious at the sudden change in topic, but didn't question it. "Not that I remember, no. The closest I've gotten is probably Shiro disappearing." 

"What would you have done if it turned out that Shiro actually died?"

Staring at Lance quizzically, Keith's expression suddenly became angry? "He's not dead, so why even ask that?"

"What if he did die though?" Lance remained undeterred by the absolutely venomous look Keith was shooting him. "What if someday, some asshole just kills him? Wouldn't that kinda… you know… _suck_?"

"Of course it would!" Keith immediately snapped. "I'd be fucking pissed! Why the fuck are you even asking that?"

"Some defender of the universe I am then, huh?" The smile on Lance's face was painfully forced, barely masking any of the anguish he was feeling. "Shooting people down just because I'm told to."

"But the Orak were the bad guys in that situation."

"Were they though?" Finally, Lance dropped the smile and levelled Keith with an uncharacteristically serious look. "So far, the Orak were the ones to greet us with mostly open arms, to feed us, to give us a _chance_. Velonians are the ones who can't even agree on how to govern their own country, who tried taking apart Blue and selling me out to the Galra. We don't even know what provoked the Orak to attack, what their motive was."

"That…"

"Look at the facts, Keith. Take a real close look at everything that's happened so far." Lance then turned away to lean against his part of the tree, eyes drifting off to stare into the depths of the forest. "Who do you think we really should be protecting here?"

Keith didn't have to voice it; they were both thinking the same thing. It was clear as day to both of them, which only made it all the harder to accept. The two then fell into another silence, each surveying their own area of the forest. They sat far apart enough that it was easy to forget each other's presence, easy to ignore each other. Neither of them felt quite ready to bring up the elephant in the room, causing both to simply relish in the awkward silence.

At some point, Lance's stomach made its dissatisfaction known and released horrifying gurgling noises, alarming even Keith.

"Maybe we should find some food," the Red Paladin eventually mumbled, still not looking at Lance. "I don't think it'll try attacking us while we're this on guard."

"You think it's watching us right now?"

Keith simply shrugged, face empty of any specific emotion. "Could be. It could've been stalking us ever since the moment we set foot into this forest."

Lance's eyes had gone impossibly wide at those words. "Shut up."

That finally tickled a thin smile out of Keith. "Come on, let's get out of this tree." 

With Keith already making his way down, there wasn't much left for Lance to do but follow. Inevitably, climbing down the tree turned into a competition. One that involved childish insults and jabs. Lance, being slightly more adept at climbing, reached the grassy ground first. 

"Suck it, Keith!" 

"Ugh…" Keith was still stuck in a complicated mess of branches and vines, eyebrows curled into an annoyed scowl. "How the fuck am I even supposed to get out of this?"

"You could jum–"

"Shut the fuck up." 

Shrugging, Lance's mocking smirk only widened. "Want the climbing master to help little Keith get down safely? Yeah? Okay! First, find a safe branch to put your little feetsies on. Theeeeen you make sure not to get tangled in a mess of vines and–"

"I get it, so will you shut up already! I'm _trying_ to get out of this fucking tree and you're not helping!" 

Poorly suppressing laughter, Lance cackled to himself as he watched Keith struggle to get all those vines out of his way. It was like watching an angry cat stuck in a tree. Confusion splayed across his face when Keith suddenly went still, his face obscured by leaves. "What's up?"

Keith didn't reply immediately. He turned his head downwards slightly, as though he was listening to something. "Thought I heard something."

A silent gasp immediately fell from Lance's lips. "You mean–"

"No, something smaller," Keith immediately retorted. "Might've heard wrong though. Hard to tell in a forest."

That was when Lance heard something rustling, a frantic, panicked sound. "Wha–"

"Get down!" 

Lance didn't have time to react. Out of nowhere, a deer-like creature jumped out of the bushes and towards him. It seemed panicked, entirely unbothered by him standing there. It simply dashed at him, slitted eyes crazed, antlers looking dangerously spiked. He was already mentally preparing himself for the inevitable impact, his body being slammed into the ground, those antlers quite literally slicing him up. He closed his eyes. 

The impact blew Lance off his feet completely. His body sailed through the air and landed in tall grass, pain exploding all over his right side where he hit the ground. He was afraid to open his eyes, afraid to see the extent of the damage. Surely, the adrenaline rushing through his body was numbing most of the pain.

"Lance?"   

Immediately, his eyes shot open. "Keith?" 

Keith was leaning over him, arms braced against the ground next to his head. "You okay?"

Lance was momentarily distracted by just how close Keith was at the moment. So close, in fact, that he could feel his warm breath on him and see the faint little scar running through his right eyebrow. "Y-Yeah." He didn't trust his voice enough to say anything more right away. Instead, he opted to stare at Keith weirdly, trying to make sense of the situation. Keith had protected him, saved his life. Again. "Did you actually jump out of the tree? I was joking, you know."

"If I hadn't jumped out, your dumb ass would have gotten run over by some rabid alien deer."

Shaking his head, Lance pointedly looked anywhere but Keith's face. "Why would you do something like that?!"

Keith let out a small sigh. "I don't know. My body just… moved on its own."

Hearing that, Lance froze. "Did you just…" Finally pushing Keith off of him, Lance sat up and shot an incredulous look at the other. "You…! Wait, never mind."

"What?"

"I said _never mind_. I just thought you quoted something, but you're Keith and that wouldn't make sense." 

Lacking the energy to engage Lance any further, Keith listlessly stared at the other paladin for a moment. "You need to eat. You sound crazy." When Keith then tried to get up, he suddenly hissed. "Shit."

That instantly set Lance off. "What now?"

Keith shot him a mildly annoyed look, before slowing trying to get up, putting more and more weight on his feet. But as soon as he was halfway up, he collapsed again, causing him to heave a loud, frustrated sigh. "I can't walk."

"What?"

"I said I can't walk."

Lance continued staring at Keith, expression confused. "What?"

Keith gave up.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" 

"Lance."

"What do you _mean_ you can't walk?"

"Lance!"

"Do you get what kinda situation we're in right now?!"

"Calm down!"

"I AM CALM!"

Keith wiped Lance's spit off his face, but didn't reply.

"Okay, maybe not, fuck you." Crossing his arms huffily, Lance got into a more comfortable position on the ground. "What're we gonna do now?"

Staying silent for a long time, Keith seemed to be mulling over all their options. All until he came to one conclusion. "You need to kill it."

"On my own? Are you insane?!"

"It's either that or we go back," Keith shot back, stern expression leaving no room for discussion. 

Lance knew he was right. Taking things any further than this meant only endangering both their lives unnecessarily. Even if it meant crawling back in shame, at least they would be alive. And most important of all, they would still be able to pilot Voltron. "Fine. Let's go back then." 

Nodding silently, Keith rummaged through his pouch, dark brows furrowing in concentration. Once he had the transmitter in his hand, his brows only pulled together further into a frown. He was pressing on a button again and again, but nothing happened. "Gimme yours," he demanded, holding out his hand.

Sighing at the brusque tone, Lance didn't retort in any way and simply rummaged through his many pockets until he finally found his transmitter. "Yours broken?"

Keith merely grumbled back something vaguely annoyed-sounding, now trying to get Lance's transmitter to turn on. A small blue light flashed on for only a second, before ultimately dying out again. "What the…?"

"It's tech from the Castle, isn't it?" Lance asked, leaning over Keith as he began turning both transmitters over and over in his hands, expression growing more and more tense. "You'd think alien tech would be… you know… _advanced_. But I guess not." He went silent for only a second, long enough to watch Keith visibly go slightly red in the face. "You think the signal might be jammed again? Or maybe Coran forgot to charge them or something."

"Oh my god."

"Are we fucked?"

"We're fucked." By the looks of it, any second now steam would come shooting out of Keith's ears.

"Well, that sucks."

Frowning, Keith angrily ran a hand through his hair. "No shit."

Too exhausted to even feel upset over their predicament, Lance opted to survey their surroundings for a moment. "You think something scared that deer thing?"

"Yeah…" Keith simply mumbled back. "We should probably get away from here."

Lance nodded, realising only a second later that Keith was still very much injured. "So uh… do you want me to…?" He trailed off, holding out a hand to Keith, who was still sitting on the ground.

Staring at Lance's outstretched hand, it seemed to take Keith a few seconds to process everything. Eventually he grasped the hand offered to him and let Lance carefully help him stand up. He almost automatically ended up leaning into Lance, nearly stumbling before quickly throwing an arm around the other's shoulders. Luckily, Lance wrapped an arm around his waist to support him further and they were able to actually leave the area.

Their trek through the forest then was slow and riddled with Keith cursing under his breath, his leg aching more and more. Not a minute went by that they didn't stumble, that Lance didn't complain about the situation or that Keith didn't snap back. 

"I'm hungry, I'm tired, I feel gross and my feet hurt," Lance ranted, sweat beading on his forehead. "Not to mention we've got some kinda alien predator stalking us. Could it get any better?"

"You could shut up, for one."

Shooting a venomous glare at Keith, Lance felt tempted to just drop his teammate. "Want me to break your other leg too?"

"I'd like to see you try." 

They glared at each other momentarily, before huffily turning their heads the other way. The incident at the waterfall was still fresh in their minds, causing them to be overly mindful of each other's presence. Suddenly, it was impossible to ignore when their eyes would unconsciously drift down to each other's lips, a certain electricity buzzing back and forth between them. 

"Don't those kinda look like apples?" Lance suddenly spoke up, eyes trained on a nearby tree.

Following the other's line of sight, Keith's eyes also fell on a large tree to their right. Plump, purple fruits weighed down its branches, its leaves still moist with a light sheen of morning dew.   

"They look kinda edible, I guess," Keith concluded, moving forward and forcing Lance to do the same.

Once they were both actually standing underneath the tree, fruits in reach, they did nothing but quizzically stare. 

At the alluring sight, Lance gulped and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "So… are these safe to eat?"

"How should I know?" Keith quietly grumbled back, watching as Lance pulled one of the fruits off its branch, eyeing it suspiciously and turning it over in his hand. "Bigger fruits tend to have poisonous seeds, right? So I guess we should be fine as long as we just don't eat the seeds."

"I guess that's true, but–" Lance's breath got caught in his throat when Keith suddenly leaned down, the brunet's hair brushing against his face. He shuddered slightly when Keith took a bite out of the fruit in his hand, heartbeat picking up and heat prickling over his skin. Listening to the wet sound of Keith's mouth around that fruit did odd things to Lance, making him feel weirdly fluttery, yet turbulent. "Uh… wha… you…" He continued stammering like that, even more so when Keith's face turned towards him and the Red Paladin fixed him with a neutral gaze, one that was unreadable and terrifying. "You can't just eat that! Spit it out!" 

Without breaking eye contact, Keith defiantly chewed and wiped a hand over his mouth. 

"No, wai–" Lance was cut off by the sound of Keith swallowing. "Why would you do that, you moron! What if these are poisonous?"

Keith shrugged. "Give it a couple hours and we'll know. I'm already injured anyway, so a little poison isn't gonna make things worse than they already are."

"Are you stupid?" Lance hissed back. "I mean are you actually braindead or something? You can't just eat random shit!"

"Well, we can also just, you know… _not eat_ until whenever we get back, which could take a while."  

Face-palming, Lance had to take a deep breath in order to contain his frustration, least he would bite Keith's head off. "No more eating random shit."

"Tastes good though."

Sighing, Lance let his eyes wander. For a moment he considered maybe eating some of the fruit after all. He was slowly reaching a point where he could feel his body getting weaker by the hour, fatigue clinging to his every fibre. "How's your leg?"

Keith tried putting weight on his injured leg, only to nearly stumble, hissing out a curse. "Still busted." He looked incredibly annoyed, features twisted into a scowl. With more force than necessary, he pushed away from Lance and, not quite gracefully, sat down in front of a tree to rest. 

Seeing the anger and resignation in Keith's face, the severity of their situation suddenly hit Lance. They were both exhausted, practically unarmed, entirely unprotected, as well as completely disoriented. They had been aimlessly wandering around in search of food for so long, Lance's stomach had gone silent again. As though it had resigned itself to its fate. 

Lance's eyes went wide when he suddenly caught sight of something vaguely familiar. Mindful of Keith's exasperated gaze on him, he jogged towards an unassuming, small tree with a wide and lush crown. Peach-sized white fruits hung from it's branches. "Don't these looks like big wobbly lychees?" he asked, feeling an urge to poke the fruits. "Without the shell, you know?" He eventually gave in to temptation and poked at them with a finger, noting the squishy sound they made. "I wonder–" The moment he put his hand around one of the fruits, it exploded into a goopy white mess, covering his face and chest. "Aaaw man! This stuff stinks! And it kinda looks like c– Hey, why're you looking at me like that?"

Keith had gone silent. He seemed frozen in place, jaw hanging open, an almost pained edge to his incredulous expression. Eventually, he seemed to snap out of it and shook his head. "N-Nothing. Clean yourself up, you look disgusting."

"I don't need you to tell me that!" Lance screeched, frantically wiping off the white goo.

Even though he seemed ready to counter with yet another snarky comment, Keith suddenly went silent. Eyebrows pulling together into a confused frown, he frantically searched their surroundings. "Lance…?"

Immediately, Lance felt unsettled. Goosebumps rose all over his skin, a shudder crawling down his spin. Something was wrong.

"Don't you think it's really… misty?"

Looking back towards the path they had come from, Lance found that he couldn't even see much of the ground anymore, too thick was the layer of mist covering it. "Now that you mention it…"

A thick blanket of fog had settled over the entire forest. It was rising, slowly covering the ground they stood on, gradually growing taller and taller, obscuring more and more of the forest. Already, the air in front of them seemed slightly murky. 

"How did it get this thick this fast?" Already heading to where Keith was sitting, Lance tried to reign in his nerves. 

Expression tense, Keith let Lance help him stand back up. "No clue," he mumbled, putting his arm back around Lance's shoulders. "What do we do now?" 

Stunned by the question, Lance at first wasn't entirely sure if Keith was truly, seriously asking him. But then he glanced to his side and found Keith shooting an imploring look at him, looking like he was genuinely waiting for some kind of answer. Had he truly recognised Lance's Bear Grylls-approved survival skills? "Uh… hmm…" Lance took a second to mull over what to do, wisps of fog curling around his legs. "Find higher ground?" he eventually said in a questioning tone. "Fog gathers towards the ground. So if we can get to someplace higher, we should be able to see a bit better. It'll protect us from whatever's chasing us too."

"Hmm…" Keith seemed to think about it for only a second, before shrugging. "Sounds good to me."

"O-Okay." Not used to Keith being so compliant, Lance wasn't quite sure how to feel. Be flattered that Keith seemed to trust his judgement? Suspicious that he was suddenly so agreeable? 

He almost wished for their usual arguments back, just so he wouldn't be so confused anymore.

* * *

 

Wandering through a misty forest proved to be more trying than anything else they had done on this mission so far. Not only was visibility low, but they also couldn't trust their own senses anymore. Sounds, usually crisp and easily identified, were suddenly muffled and off-sounding. Something about the fog was interfering with their perception, causing them to second-guess everything they saw and heard.

"I _swear_ I heard some weird groaning sound," Lance hissed, struggling to continue supporting Keith, his own legs growing slightly wobbly. 

"Quit being such a scaredy-cat." 

"No, dude, I'm not imagining it," Lance insisted. "It– EEK!" 

When Lance fell, Keith fell with him. And along with Lance's terrified scream, Keith's angry cussing rang out in the mostly silent forest.

"What the hell, man!" Keith had rolled away from Lance in time to not aggravate his injured leg any further. "What's your problem?!"

Meanwhile, Lance was cowering on the ground, shoulders hunched and terror written all over his face. "S-Sorry. Something jumped into the back of neck." 

Sighing, Keith crawled over to his teammate, roughly jerked the other towards him and pulled down the back of his jacket. He eyed the nape of Lance's neck for only a moment, before sighing and pushing him away again. "It was probably just a drop of water, you dip."

"Really?" Tears still stuck to the corners of Lance's eyes. But looking at Keith, the exasperated frown and deadpan look, he quickly got back up and offered the other paladin a hand. "Okay, okay."

Once they were both on their merry way again, Lance made it a point to suppress the constant need to screech or flinch at anything and everything, barely able to stop himself from shivering. Something about this fog was incredibly off-putting and unsettling, every snap of a twig horrifying, every whistle of the wind sending a shiver down his back. 

"Keith…"

"What now?"

Against his better judgement, Lance held Keith closer than was strictly necessary. "You think it's watching us? Like right now?"

Keith seemed to notice the genuine paranoia and fear in Lance's eyes, mocking frown easing up slowly. "Probably."

A deep sigh tore from Lance's throat, the Blue Paladin dropping his head slightly. "I can't take this, man. I've been on edge ever since we ran into that thing and– I mean what're we even doing? Even if, by some miracle, we somehow manage to defeat it, what then? How are the others supposed to find us?"

"Well… didn't the Orak mention that they would just… _know_ when we do it? That weird telepathic forest stuff, you know."

"Yeah, but… still…" Lance shook his head and haphazardly wiped a hand over his tired eyes. "I can't take this." Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Keith shoot him what had to be a concerned glance. It made him feel all the more incompetent and helpless. To have Keith of all people pitying him… Suddenly, Lance came a stop when he noticed what was ahead of them. "I guess that's where we'll go."

Stretching up into the sky in front of them was an enormous mountain, big enough that the thick fog obscured the very top, making it seem endless.

"Lance…"

"Hm?" Lance found Keith looking back at him with an exasperated expression, causing him to cock his head in confusion.

"How are we climbing that?"

"Uh…" Looking again, Lance realised that to get to that cave-like area up there, they would have to climb a considerable amount. "Is your leg still useless?"

Frowning at the question, Keith carefully pulled away from Lance and walked a few steps. "It's better. Still hurts a lot, but as long as I can rest afterwards, I think we could actually make it."

"You sure?"

Keith hobbled around a bit more, mindful to favour his good leg. "We don't have much of a choice, do we?"

Watching Keith stubbornly limp around like that, Lance eventually grabbed the other's arm to support him at least a little and pulled him towards the mountain. He could tell Keith wanted to protest and insist that he didn't need help, but was cut off by his own wince of pain. "We're not gonna get anywhere otherwise," Lance explained.

Reluctantly, Keith seemed to accept his fate and let Lance help him. He began walking on his own, Lance's hand on his arm mostly a safety measure in case he stumbled; which he did. Several times. 

Scaling the mountain then first consisted of Lance quickly climbing to a cave, checking the area and making sure it was safe. He didn't explore the cave much, finding that it went relatively deep into the mountain; too deep for him to feel comfortable going in on his own. He was glad Keith couldn't hear the little squawk he let out at some kind of fluffy purple bat creature flying out at him. When he got back down to where Keith was waiting impatiently and tapping his foot, Lance immediately smirked.

"So, damsel in distress… ready to best this mountain?"

Keith's already miffed expression soured even more at the question. "Want me to get your white stallion so it can kick you in the fucking head, oh great knight in shining armour?" Annoyance made way for surprise when Keith didn't receive quite the response he had expected: Lance was cackling and trying to suppress his laughter with a hand over his mouth. "What?" Keith snapped weakly, unable to muster up his earlier anger.

"Nothing, just…" Lance wiped tears from his eyes, his posture suddenly more relaxed than it had ever been the past few hours. "It's been such a crazy day and we're still like this." Keith didn't respond and simply shot an annoyed look at the other, prompting Lance to walk ahead. He pointed out where exactly Keith should put his feet and how to climb the wall, making sure the Red Paladin wouldn't fall, then followed behind. He essentially acted as a replacement for his injured leg, pulling or pushing him when it couldn't.

It took a long time, their pace excruciatingly slow, the trek up the mountain sapping every last bit of energy they had left. 

"Come on, gimme your hand." Lance was lying in the cave belly down, arms reaching out towards Keith, who was still clinging to the rock wall below. He watched Keith struggle with his hold on the rock wall for a moment, before slowly reaching up. Keith let out a small gasp when he suddenly slipped. 

"Shit."

Lance's body moved before he could even form any conscious thought. Before he knew it, he was halfway out of the cave again, desperately clinging on to Keith's arm. Slowly but surely, he was slipping out of the cave himself, Keith's weight pulling him down.

"Wait, I got it," Keith gasped, finding his grip again and climbing the rest of the way with Lance quickly pulling him up. 

Once they had both stumbled into the cave panting and gasping for air, they collapsed onto the ground and for a while did nothing but catch their breath and wait for their racing hearts to calm down.

"Remind me to never go rock-climbing with you," Lance mumbled once he had caught his breath. "I wouldn't even trust you on an indoor climbing wall."

That tickled a small, breathless chuckle out of Keith. "You're just scared I'll be better than you."

"HAH! As if." 

Silence fell over them after that, but it wasn't awkward. Rather, it was peaceful and let their minds wind down slightly after having that burst of adrenaline rush through their system. 

Keith suddenly turned his head towards Lance, expression solemn. "About what happened at the waterfall this morning…" Seeing the other already opening his mouth, he interrupted Lance before he could somehow derail the conversation. "You don't actually hate gay people, do you?"

Lance immediately sat up, eyebrows set in a frown. "What're you talking about?! I–"

"You're not that type of person," Keith shot back matter-off-actly, slowly sitting up. "You're annoying, but if there's one thing I've learned about you in the past couple months, it's that you're not a hateful person."

"Don't act like you know me." Turning away from Keith, Lance hunched his shoulders. "You don't."

Keith seemed to watch Lance for a moment, face mostly blank. As he stared, a small insect-like creature skittered past. "Sure, I may not know every little detail about you, every thought that goes through your mind. But I do know that you're a good person." Even the lack of a response didn't deter him. "I might be kinda dense when it comes to people stuff, but that much I know."

Abruptly, Lance turned back around to face his teammate. "What do you want me to say, huh?" 

Slightly taken aback by the sudden shift, Keith didn't say a word for a moment, before leaning closer into Lance. "What's the real reason you reacted like that? Is it something I did or–?"

"No, I just…! I…" As much as Lance wanted to bury this entire thing, never to be seen or heard of again, he had to admit that Keith deserved some kind of answer. "I was scared… I guess."

"Scared? Scared of what?"

Lance simply shook his head, a drop of water falling from the clammy ceiling of the cave. "I… don't know. Everything that happened in Velanos is so foggy in my mind and I keep remembering bits and pieces of what happened in the prison and it scared me when you…" Realising what he had just let slip, Lance hoped that, by some miracle, Keith hadn't taken note of his words, hadn't caught on to the implications of what he just said. But his hopes were dashed when he saw the questioning look in Keith's eyes, the other paladin slowly connecting the dots. 

"What does what happened in the prison have to do with us…?" All of a sudden, a realisation seemed to hit Keith, eyes going impossibly wide, anger mingling into his expression. "Wait, did they–!"

"No!" Lance yelled, shooting up off the ground to tower over the sitting Keith. "No one did anything! Nothing happened!"

Mirroring Lance, Keith, with some difficulty, rose from the ground as well. "That doesn't sound like nothing though!"

"Drop it!"

"No!" Keith yelled, pushing so far into Lance's space that he could see the specks of silver in the other's dark blue eyes. "You need to quit pretending!"

"And you need to shut up!" 

They both realised at the same time that their yelling could attract all sorts of trouble, so they both instantly went silent, opting to angrily staring at each other instead. The silence between them stretched on for quite a while, Lance hoping Keith would give up eventually.

As he sat back down, Lance noticed Keith watching him intently. "Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?" There was genuine confusion in Keith's face.

"Like I'm broken somehow and you want to fix me."

That seemed to ruffle Keith's feathers quite a bit. "I didn't–!"

"That's exactly what you're thinking. Don't lie." Lance watched as Keith slowly sat down as well, a frown carved into his features. "I know a pitying look when I see one."

Keith, for the first time, seemed to be carefully choosing his words. Deep in thought, he began picking at a moss-covered rock. "I just want to help you."

"I don't need help, okay?" Even saying the words felt odd. Lance oh so desperately wanted to be miraculously relieved of all his stresses and worries, have these fragmented memories erased from his mind. He simply wanted to be able to sleep at night. But telling Keith wouldn't change anything; in fact, it probably would only make it worse. There was nothing Keith could do. "Look, I appreciate the thought and everything, but I don't want anyone babying me. I'm alive, healthy, nothing earth-shattering happened in Persia, everything's fine."

Clearly, Keith could see through his lies. He had seen first-hand just how troubled Lance was over what had happened in Persia. "You don't look _fine_."

"How dare you?" Lance immediately huffed out in a mock offended tone. "I'm a fucking eight, at least."

"I'm being serious!" 

"So am I." Lance fixed Keith with a stern look, causing the other to finally settle down. "Everything's fine."

Keith seemed to realise that they weren't getting anywhere. Instead of urging Lance further, he then leaned against a rock and angrily stared at the ground. 

As he sneakily watched Keith sulk, Lance sighed. He wasn't entirely sure if he had dodged a bullet or run headfirst into one. Part of him wanted to tell Keith everything, tell someone, _anyone_ about what had happened. But at the same time, he feared how everyone would view him if he did. He had brought this on himself. There was no one to blame but him. Did he really have any place to complain?

The sound of trees shaking violently made the two flinch, causing them to sit up a little straighter, eyes trained on the forest outside. Creatures flew out of the treetops, startled and agitated. The forest was disturbed.

"I think it's coming," Lance hissed, slowly getting up and walking towards the cave opening. Heart racing, he watched the trees shaking one after another, bending and creaking to the tune of chaos. "It's coming towards us." 

"Lance!" There was a certain wariness to Keith's voice. "Get away from there or it'll see us!"

"It already knows we're here though, doesn't it?" 

"But–"

"Wait for me here," Lance quietly, unhurriedly cut him off. "Don't move."

"No, Lance, what–!" Before Keith could even get the words out, Lance was already climbing out of the cave. By the time Keith had limped to the edge of the cave, Lance was already halfway down. Keith could only helplessly watch as his teammate descended further and further, eventually touching his feet to the ground. With bated breath he watched Lance nervously glance around, before darting off into the forest. 

Towards the noisiest part of it all. 

With his leg pulsing with pain again, all Keith could do was watch as Lance rushed towards certain death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this satisfied anyone who wanted the tension of earlier chapters back.
> 
> I'm gonna have to start uploading biweekly from now on, I think. Writing the final chapters is taking me much longer than expected and I don't want to end up with too much time between chapters, in case my uploaded chapters catch up fully with what I have drafted. Once I have everything drafted until the end, I'll start uploading every week again.
> 
> Until then, that means the next chapter will be out in two weeks on Friday.


	10. Amnesia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good news: I've finally made some art for this fic! I was planning on making some for each chapter, but I was too busy with exams when I started posting this. I can't put the whole thing in this chapter because it would just mess up the mobile layout especially, so I'll add a link to the full image and my tumblr in the end note.

Contrary to his own expectations, Lance felt strangely relaxed being away from Keith after so long. Despite the nagging worry in the back of his mind, being on his own was refreshing in a way. But to his dismay, the sky was looking suspiciously orange, meaning the sun would begin disappearing soon. He didn't have much time. 

For a while , Lance wandered around the forest aimlessly. Oddly, the fog was suddenly absent, gone without a trace – there was a moment in which he doubted if it had actually even been there at all. Strolling through the forest, nonchalantly kicking at the grass, Lance wondered if perhaps this forest was perfectly peaceful after all. And so his train of thought very quickly turned towards Keith. To Keith, their kiss, their arguments, their silences. It was obvious by this point that Keith was attracted to him somehow. But what exactly that meant, neither of them knew. Keith himself seemed incredibly unsure about his own feelings, so how could Lance understand anything about this situation? Had the kiss been a simple spur of the moment, once in a lifetime thing? Or was it Keith trying to somehow communicate deeper feelings? Lance couldn't tell. And by the looks of it, neither could Keith. 

And if Keith _did_ turn out to have deeper feelings… what then?

Lance was sure he didn't have those sort of feelings for Keith. But recalling their kiss and the various moments of Keith's mere presence being a distraction, Lance found himself wondering.

Did he really mind Keith kissing him another time?

Too late Lance noticed how deep into the forest he had ventured. Cautiously glancing around, he couldn't even see the tip of the mountain he had come from. Too tall were the trees, too little light making it through their thick, heavy crowns. A sense of dread immediately took hold of him, pushing out any other thought. He could tell something was approaching, waiting, _watching_. With how loud his heart was thumping, he was convinced any nearby creature could hear and would scamper away, startled. His steps sounded disturbingly loud to his own ears, the sound of his own breath obnoxious. He was, by no means, being sneaky. 

Suddenly, he felt it. The draw of his lion, of some kind of energy beckoning him. Only, it wasn't his lion. 

A shudder ran down his spine, goosebumps rising all over his skin. Terror laid its cold, long claws around his throat, firmly locking him in place where he stood. The last time he had felt like this in this forest, he had been convinced he could die at any second. 

The rustling of leaves and the snapping of twigs breaking made Lance jump and continue walking, frantically searching the trees surrounding him to all sides. Suddenly, every shadow, every movement, all of it spelled imminent death for him. 

Eventually, Lance made it to a clearing. No other creatures in sight, the only other thing there was a large tree sitting atop a small hill at the very centre. Its roots crawled all over the ground, winding and slithering through the grass, before disappearing into the dirt. Unlike every other tree in this enormous forest, its crown wasn't simply green. To Lance's amazement, it was in full bloom, small violet flowers covering the entire tree. Each gust of wind caused a shower of violet petals to rain down and dance through the air. 

Lance's eyebrows pulled into a frown when he noticed something hazy sitting underneath the tree. It was blurry and hard to make out, making him question if he was simply seeing things. The odd sight reminded him of the shimmering heat hazes and mirages of the summer, hot air dancing over the ground and distorting the world around it. Walking closer, he gradually grew certain that something real and tangible was sitting under the tree. And the closer he got, the more he felt like he knew what it was. 

He came to a stop quite a distance away from the thing under the tree, ready to bolt at a second's notice. He watched intently as the haze shifted and moved, before eventually taking shape. As soon as its eyes opened and met his, he was certain that this was the creature he was supposed to defeat. That same terror he had felt hours ago filled him again, those same eyes rooting him place. Immediately, Lance knew that this creature was even more intelligent than him and Keith had initially assumed. Staring into its piercing eyes, the way it seemed to study him, he felt as though it was self-aware. 

The creature finally moved away from the tree, taking a more tangible shape, its exact silhouette still hazy. It walked on four legs, a bushy tail whipping around behind it. Its fluffy ears twitched and turned, slitted eyes never leaving Lance's. It was a panther-like creature with chameleon fur that never stopped shifting colours and eyes that gazed deep into his, as though probing his mind for the deepest, darkest things he tried to hide. To say Lance felt intimidated would be an understatement. It was large. Larger than any land predator Lance had ever seen on Earth. Lions, tigers, leopards; none of them could hold a candle to this thing. But despite being unable to communicate with the creature in any way, Lance somehow knew that it wasn't planning on harming him. For now. 

It stopped and idly sat down at the foot of the tree, tail whipping back and forth over the ground. It seemed to be waiting. 

"I'm supposed to fight you, you know," Lance carefully murmured, unsure of how to approach. "I'm not here to play with you."

Instead of cocking its head in confusion like a dog, or moodily walking off in boredom like a cat, the creature simply continued patiently watching him. No doubting it now: it wanted Lance to come closer. Gulping, he did so reluctantly, albeit _very_ slowly. Still, approaching it felt wrong. Each step closer felt like he was inching further and further away from reality, into some sort of void in which the layers of time and space were gradually breaking down. 

The sun began to dip beneath the horizon, the violet tree casting a long shadow over the creature. Its fur changed colours accordingly, growing darker and less saturated. Yet its eyes stayed the same piercing, cold hue. No matter how much Lance stared, he couldn't put a name to the colour. It wasn't a colour he had never seen before; it was simply… indescribable. 

There was only a short distance left between them. The creature could easily jump him from this distance, kill him without much effort. Lance himself wasn't quite sure why he was doing this, why he was responding to unspoken orders. It made him wonder if he had truly been lead here by a set of coincidences, or if this exact series of events had been predetermined the moment Keith and him had set foot into this forest. 

All of a sudden, the creature stood up on all four and bared its long fangs at him, a deep growl rumbling in its throat. Its slitted eyes sliced right through him, paralysing Lance completely. He stood rooted in place, afraid that any semblance of movement could set the creature off and cause it to pounce. The need to run was almost overwhelming, his heart almost painfully hammering inside his chest now. Breaths coming choppily, Lance watched in horror as the creature's eyes grew more and more stormy and violent. 

Then, it leaped at him.

It didn't even have to run. It simply jumped, appearing in front of him in the blink of an eye. There was simply no time to react. One second Lance was standing on his feet, the next his back was slammed into the ground, his head colliding with the unforgiving earth. He could feel the weight of the creature on top of him, pressing him even further into the ground, claws digging into his chest where a single paw kept him pressed down. He could smell its breath, foul and rotten. Drops of saliva dripped onto his face when it hissed at him, the sound bone-chilling and almost snake-like. 

The last thing he saw was the creature's jaw unhinging so it could open its gaping maw even wider, before rows of fangs came shooting towards his face. 

* * *

Lance awoke gasping and immediately panicking. "What the heck?!", he shrieked, sitting up and wildly searching his surroundings. "Why's it so hot?" Sweat was dripping into his eyes, his clothes already clinging to his damp skin. As he stood up, he hastily took off his jacket and wrapped it around his hips, before wiping sweat from his forehead. The more he looked around, the less he understood what was happening.

Somehow, he had ended up in a wasteland. Enormous jagged rocks jotted out of the landscape like thorns. The ground looked charred, steam billowing out of little gaps and crevices. Lance could feel the heat radiating from the very ground he was standing on. But most confusingly and least comprehensible of all: the sky was a mirror. Every mountain, every rise and dip of the landscape was mirrored in it crystal clear, in no way distorted or false. 

Picking up his pace, Lance's unease only grew. The forest was nowhere in sight. Looking out from the Castle on their way to the Orak moon, he hadn't seen this kind of endless wasteland anywhere near where they had landed. Or anywhere on the planet, for that matter. How was anyone supposed to find him here? Where was Keith? Thousands of questions circled through Lance's mind, all of which going unanswered as Lance aimlessly stumbled around. 

The very air he was breathing seemed to be on fire, scorching his lungs and slowly burning him from the inside out. The ground he walked on seemed to fold in on itself, winding and twisting as he walked, never quite going the way he wanted it to. Even the horizon, distant and unreachable, was splitting and twirling, winding around the ground over and over again, until they became one and Lance was falling. Falling into even more intense heat.

When he opened his eyes, Lance was staring into the mouth of a volcano. Lava slowly flowed along winding paths like water, the only light in this cave-like structure coming from the flames dancing across the ground. Pearls of sweat fell from his chin and sizzled into smoke before ever touching the ground.

And then Lance saw him. In the midst of lava and scorched trees, sitting on a throne of grotesquely winding roots, was Keith. 

Paying no mind to the still rapidly increasing temperature, Lance broke out into a run, eager to reach his teammate. Stepping into lava on his way was like stepping into quicksand, the melting ground attempting to pull him back, keep him away from the Red Paladin. But he continued wading through the rivers of molten rock, pushing through until he finally reached his goal. Chest heaving now, Lance could finally get a closer look at Keith. With horror he realised that the reason Keith wasn't moving was because he was bound. Bone-dry, burnt tree roots wrapped around his limbs and torso. They looked like they would easily crumble with a single touch, yet Keith seemed entirely trapped by them.

"Dude, hey…" Lance whispered, reaching a hand out towards Keith. "We need to get out. This place freaks me ou–" Only now did Lance realise that he couldn't quite make out Keith's face. It seemed almost as though he couldn't direct his own eyes at the other's face, like his gaze kept slipping off of it. In his mind, Keith's face was nothing but a messy blur. "Hey…" he tried again, touching a hand to Keith's shoulder. "Ouch, shit!" He hissed, immediately pulling back his hand. Keith was hot; as in painful-to-touch hot. "Keith, hey! Wake up!" Growing angry, Lance now dug his fingers into Keith's shoulders, heat be damned. "Listen to me! We need to leave, NOW!" 

Immediately, a flood of images assaulted Lance's mind. Voices, smells, sensations. Dreams and images. They all flowed into his mind, being played like thousands of movies at a speed so incredibly accelerated, he could barely see or hear a thing. Yet, strangely, it all made sense. Every time he touched Keith, it was as though he was touching a burning furnace. Flashes of unfamiliar faces and distorted voices seared themselves into his mind, burning their way into his brain. He saw Keith. Truly, for the first time since being made aware of his existence, he saw Keith.

As soon as Lance was able to get a good grip on Keith, he began to pull, smoke rising from his hands. "If you're not gonna move, I'll _make_ you move." He could hear the roots restraining Keith crack and break apart, hissing and protesting, as though resisting with all their might. But it was no use. Inch by inch, Lance was pulling Keith out of his throne, until finally, even the last root broke and Keith was free. 

They fell into a pool of lava together, Lance holding on to Keith for dear life. Lance did not resist, letting the burning earth swallow him and Keith whole. Finally, Lance was able to see Keith's face clearly; his thick eyebrows, straight nose and that small scar in his eyebrow. When those dark eyes opened and met his, Lance finally understood. 

"I'm not leaving you alone ever again."

* * *

Whenever people in movies wake up after being asleep for a long time, they slowly blink open their eyes, perhaps shield their eyes from soft light, and slowly begin sitting up accompanied by peaceful music. Usually someone is sitting next to them and immediately explains the situation to them, dumping exposition and, in many cases, progressing a badly structured romance plot. 

This was not like that.

Lance woke up panicked and disoriented, confused as to where he was and what was happening. Enveloped by cold mist, a mechanical hissing noise suddenly surrounded him, making him jump and let out a startled screech. When a door finally opened and he was able to step out, he realised that he had been inside a cryo-replenisher. He stumbled on his way out and ended up collapsing on the floor, cold mist gathering around him and crawling over his body. He shivered slightly and tried rubbing some warmth back into his arms. Upon hearing the whirring and buzzing of another active cryo-pod, he turned around to find Keith still standing in one. 

With some trouble, Lance got to his feet and made his way towards his teammate, ending up with his hands braced against the door of Keith's pod. He briefly looked him up and down, checking for injuries, eyebrows furrowing as he struggled to remember what had happened. He vaguely remembered the forest, wandering around together with Keith, Keith getting injured. Leaving Keith in that cave. And then…

"Lance?"

Flinching in surprise, Lance turned to find Allura standing in the door. "Oh… hi?"

"You're awake," Allura sighed, a smile spreading on her tired features. "You were… unconscious. For quite a while. We were starting to get worried."

Immediately, Lance stood up straighter, a frown settling on his face. "How long?"

Allura looked reluctant to answer, smile waning slightly. "Two days."

"Wha…" Lance stared at Allura incredulously for a moment. "Wait, doesn't that mean our deadline for the armistice ends _tomorrow_?! What happened? Did the Orak say anything?"

The smile finally faded and Allura's true exhaustion shone through. "They are insisting that the new warriors, namely you and Keith, need to go through a final ritual before they acknowledge you and are willing to negotiate."

"But… we…" Speechless, Lance tried making sense of his racing thoughts, chest feeling uncomfortably tight. "So if Keith doesn't wake up within the next couple hours…" he mumbled, slowly walking back towards Keith's pod, "everything we did… almost dying in that forest… it will all have been for nothing?" 

"That's not true!" Allura immediately retorted, quickly walking up to stand beside Lance. "You have proven yourself more than worthy. This final ritual is merely a formality to properly initiate you as a full-fledged warriors. The Orak are… incredibly persistent about their customs and rules. We tried to somehow convince them but…"

"So forest-dwelling alien fur-balls are hitting us with bureaucracy. Great."

That seemed to tickle a small chuckle out of Allura, causing some of the grimness to fade from her face. "It certainly is a little unexpected." She then silently watched Keith in his pod, Lance doing the same next to her. 

They lapsed into silence like that, watching Keith, neither quite sure how to feel or what to say. Eventually, Lance felt too exhausted to continue standing any longer, so he sat down on the stairs in front of the pods. He had only just woken up from a two day long nap; even talking was exhausting.

"You must be hungry," Allura said, putting on another kind smile. "Why don't you come join us for dinner?"

"Uh…" Lance eyed Keith another time, running his eyes up and down the other's still form, before shaking his head slightly. "I kind of… want to stay here a bit. If that's okay."

Allura looked confused at the answer, crossing her arms and cocking her head. "Aren't you hungry at all?"

"Well–" Lance was interrupted by the growling of his own stomach. 

Hiding a smile when she saw the embarrassed Lance nervously shifting around, Allura shrugged. "Fine, I'll see if I can bring you something from the kitchen."

"Thanks, Allura," Lance replied, a tired smile stretching his lips. He then watched Allura leave again, stomach quietly complaining another time. For a few minutes, he simply sat and tried to process everything that had happened. His memories were slowly becoming clearer, but what had happened between leaving Keith in that cave and waking up in a cryo-replenisher, he still didn't remember. By the sound of it, him and Keith had somehow passed the trial. How or why, he had no idea. Having all these gaps in his memories, missing pieces of his life, was unsettling, to say the least. Was this normal? At this point, after everything that had happened, could he still claim to be truly sane? Was he even still fit to be a paladin? If the rest of his team knew of his mental state… If Keith ever let anything slip… would they decide to replace him?

Lance certainly wouldn't be surprised. 

Since he sat facing away from Keith's pod, Lance had to lean back on his hands and twist his torso to see the Red Paladin. Keith needed to wake up soon. He _had_ to, otherwise… "Hey… wake up, you asshole. I've got a lot I need to ask you."

Of course, he received no answer.

Suddenly, Lance missed the way Keith's face could turn hostile and angry within a split second. One insult and his expression would twist into something incredibly wary and annoyed. Insulting him was no fun if there was no reaction. 

"Please… wake up soon."

* * *

The next time the door slid open, it was Hunk standing there beaming at Lance. "Hey, buddy!" 

"Hunk!" Lance immediately jumped up to greet his friend, a grin spreading over his face. "Feels like an eternity since I last saw you."

"I mean it's been four days or something." Hunk shrugged, walking into the room to meet Lance halfway. As he walked, his face gradually fell. "I kind of… freaked out when you weren't back after a full day. But Shiro kept telling us that you'd come back eventually."

A little flicker of pride flashed over Lance's face for only a moment. "So… what's that you're holding?"

"This?" As he lifted the covered plate in his hand, Hunk immediately began beaming again. "The food Allura promised you. She was gonna bring it to you, but something came up."

The second Hunk uncovered that plate, Lance's eyes went wide and he could feel all his senses hone in on the food. "Have I ever told you how much I adore you, Hunk, my friend, my forever home?"

"I can imagine," the other chuckled, watching gleefully as Lance, almost within seconds, cleaned off the plate, practically inhaling the food.

"Why's it already gone?" Lance immediately whined. "I haven't eaten in _days_ , Hunk. One plate isn't gonna fill me up."

"If you want more, you'll have to come join us in the kitchen." Hunk said this with all the authority and firmness of a mother exasperated with her shut-in child. "Pidge and I tried camping out in here till you guys woke up, but Allura kicked us out. You better come with me before she comes in here and decides to blast you with those laser mom eyes."

Lance briefly considered protesting and simply staying, but with the promise of food and the threat of an angry Allura, he eventually nodded and begrudgingly let Hunk lead him away. He cast a last glance at Keith's still form in the cryo-pod, before leaving for good.

"So… what happened?" Hunk asked as they were walking through the Castle's hallways. "You know, in the forest."

Shrugging, Lance let his eyes drop to the floor. "We just… kind of stumbled around. Fell a lot. I definitely did _not_ fall down a hill. Keith just had to go and sprain his ankle or something." Glancing sideways, he found Hunk shooting him an expectant look. "It was a shit-show."

"But you passed the trial," Hunk tried comforting him.

"Yeah…" Lance's eyebrows furrowed together into a frown. "If only I knew how."

Hunk was silent for a moment, seemingly mulling Lance's words over. "The Orak elders suddenly got sort of… excited, I guess. All of a sudden, there was this huge commotion and an entire group of them left the village and went into the forest. They wouldn't tell us what was going on the entire time. And then they just brought you two back. First Keith and, a while later, you." He seemed to notice Lance's deepening frown. "You were both in kind of bad shape," he added. "Dehydrated and burnt out. Keith's ankle was broken. You–"

"Wait, _broken_?" Lance cut in. "You mean broken as in _broken bone_ broken?!"

Taken aback slightly by the outburst, Hunk's eyebrows nearly disappeared into his bangs. "Uh… yeah. _Broken_ broken. It's just one bone though, so it should be fine with some time in the cryo-pod. At least Coran said so."

Keith had walked on a broken ankle. Lance had made him climb up a wall with a broken bone.Immediately, a wave of guilt washed over him.

"There's one thing that's really odd," Hunk continued, expression morphing into a concerned frown. "You had burns all over your body, especially on your hands."

Taken aback, Lance immediately took a closer look at his own hands. Faded red marks stretched over his palms, even up to his wrists. The Orak tattoos were also still very prominent on his skin, having fainted only slightly.

"Most of them disappeared," Hunk explained quietly. "But the ones on your hands will probably take more time to fully heal." He watched Lance for a moment, the way he seemed to stare at his own hands in utter confusion. "Keith had frost bites everywhere." That only made the confusion on Lance's face deepen. "His face looked pretty bad. Hands and feet too."

"How?" All Lance could remember was the sense of dread he had felt walking through that forest. Something about it wasn't right.

"We were gonna ask _you_ that."

Sighing as he dropped his hands back to his sides, Lance shook his head, the confused frown seeming etched into his features. "It felt like we were in some kind of alternate dimension. We–"

"Oh!" a voice suddenly interrupted.

Lance and Hunk both came to a stop once they entered the kitchen and found Pidge already sitting at the counter, seeming to be simultaneously munching on some kind of food bar and also working on a tablet. 

"You're awake!" Pidge cheered, setting down the tablet on the counter. "So… can I ask you a couple questions?"

"Pidge," Hunk immediately groaned, "he just woke up. At least let him eat."

"He can still answer while he eats, right?" The shorter paladin simply shrugged, already back to typing around on the tablet. "So what's the last thing you remember?"

Hunk sighed sharply, shook his head and reluctantly walked up to a fridge to pull out more leftovers for Lance, who had already sat down in front of Pidge.

"Hard to say," the Blue Paladin mumbled. "I only remember leaving Keith in a cave and going off on my own."

"Why?" Pidge immediately poked, eyes already shining with that glint of curiosity, that determination to hunt down the truth. "Why'd you leave him?"

"He was… injured. He was hurt and he couldn't walk, so I… Then I heard something. And left."

"And then?"

"And then…" Lance was playing his own memories back, trying to look at them as though they were a movie. But whenever he got to the point where he entered the forest again after leaving Keith, there was a hard cut of sorts. Almost as if the roll of film had simply gotten snipped at that point. Lance could only shake his head at Pidge in response. 

"Okay, um…" Wildly tapping around on the tablet, beeping and clicking accompanying almost every action, Pidge suddenly seemed deep in thought. "Do you remember anything about this… _guardian_ creature you guys were supposed to find?"

Vague shadows and muffled sounds played through Lance's mind, echoes of something tangible, yet slipping through his hands whenever he reached for it. "Nothing."

Pidge let out a frustrated sigh, as Hunk set down two full plates of food in front of Lance, who immediately dug in. "There has to be _something_ ," Pidge insisted, watching with mild disgust as Lance practically wolfed down his food. "I've been trying to dig up any piece of information I could on the Orak and Velanos, but nothing so far. Really makes you appreciate how on Earth almost every bit of information and knowledge to ever exist is readily available within seconds."

Those words seemed to somehow pique Hunk's interest. "That reminds me! I actually asked Coran how much data can be stored on Altean storage devices and when I told him the approximate storage capacity of the internet back on Earth, he said it would probably all fit on fifteen or so of these small Altean cube devices."

Pidge went slightly pale at the words, going completely still all of a sudden. "You mean… those can store zettabytes? As in, a couple thousand years of high definition video? Those sort of zettabytes? On one device?"

"Yeah! And–"

"Guys," Lance suddenly grumbled, "you're nerding out."

"Oh… sorry." Hunk chuckled sheepishly and quietly sat down beside Lance. "So you really don't remember anything?"

Lance was about to open his mouth to reassure Hunk that no, he did not have any memories beyond what he had already recounted, when the door slid open and a somewhat frazzled Coran walked in.

"Oh, Lance!" he immediately beamed. "Good to see you up."

"Hi, Coran." Lance casually waved at the man, smile crumbling slightly when he took in the sight of a slightly sweaty Coran. "What's wrong?"

"Oh!" Only now did Coran seem to remember his purpose in seeking out the paladins. "Allura is currently in a call with Baki. He requested to speak with you, Lance."

"Baki?" Lance hadn't thought about the minister in days. All of a sudden, all their interactions came back to him, nearly overflowing his mind. 

"Lance?" 

Noticing the confused look on Coran's face, Lance hastily made his way towards the Altean. "Coming." He silently followed Coran as he quickly rushed back to the bridge, the man cheerily chatting him up and asking how he was, if anything hurt, if he had eaten yet. "I'm fine, really," Lance eventually mumbled, trying to somehow ease Coran's overzealous mother-henning.

The moment Lance stepped into the bridge, he saw Baki's smirking face displayed on an enormous virtual monitor, the Velonian engaging Allura in superficial small talk. How the weather had gotten bad in the past few days, what he had eaten for dinner, how expensive simple toiletries had suddenly gotten over the past few days, none of which seemed to be what Allura wanted to know, judging by her annoyed frown. Baki suddenly went silent as he noticed Lance's arrival. His eyes turned away from Allura and settled on Lance, his smirk growing marginally bigger. 

 _"It's nice to see you again, Lance,"_ his velvety voice echoed through the room, slightly distorted. _"I hope you're satisfied with the way I assisted your team."_

Lance had come to a stop in the entrance door. Only when both Hunk and Pidge appeared behind him and softly pushed him forward, did he walk in further. "Uh… yeah. Thanks. You were really helpful."

Baki seemed to notice Lance's flat tone, since his smirk thinned out slightly. _"By the looks of it, I still owe you though."_

"What?" Lance perked up at the words and walked closer to the centre of the room, closer to Baki. "How?"

 _"You brought me together with the rebels,"_ Baki replied calmly. _"Not to sound arrogant, but this uprising would have been much more difficult without my help."_

Immediately, Lance frantically rifled through his memories, desperately trying to figure out what exactly Baki was talking about. When the silence stretched on for a bit too long, his heart rate picked up, before a thought finally hit him. "You mean… when I told Vera about you?" 

 _"Yes! The second Cesar's death was announced, I was contacted through an informant, so I decided to provide some…_ aid _."_

This was when Allura finally stepped forward, as though she had been waiting for those words. "What kind of aid exactly?"  

_"Oh… just some minor help in the form of a couple troops."_

Taken aback, Allura briefly went speechless, before regaining her composure again. "Didn't you call yourself a _figurehead_? How are you able to mobilise the guard force?"

_"Not being able to participate fully in governmental affairs doesn't mean that the Minister of Defence has no power over the guard force. At least in my case."_

For a short moment, Allura turned around to send a both annoyed and questioning look at Lance, before shifting her attention back to Cesar. "That aside… what is the real reason you are calling? Surely, you didn't contact us to simply update us on the weather in Persia."

Chuckling, Baki suddenly looked amused. _"As sharp as ever,"_ he mumbled, picking up a small stack of papers. _"Things might get messy from here on out."_

"How so?" Allura immediately questioned in a sharp tone.

 _"The Galra are on their way,"_ Baki replied, smirk finally dropping. _"It seems like after losing contact with Cesar and consequently having their deal fall through, they've sent out a small fleet to investigate. They should arrive in… oooh… about a quintant."_

"A day?!" Pidge screeched, nearly dropping the tablet. 

Immediately, suspicion settled in Allura's eyes. "Why are you telling us?"

Unsurprisingly, the smirk returned. _"With this, consider my debt to you paid, Lance. Although I wouldn't mind you stopping by for another visit someday."_

"Um… sure," Lance mumbled back, still unsure how to talk to Baki, now that he didn't have to put on airs anymore. He also had an inkling as to what Baki was insinuating with those words. "Thanks for your help, really. It sounds like you helped out a lot."

_"Don't mention it. Let me know if you ever need my help, Lance."_

The monitor abruptly went dark, nearly sending Allura into a rage. 

"Did he really end the transmission, just like that?!" she screeched, fingers digging into her console. "That absolute twit! How is someone like him a politician of any kind?" 

As Allura continued ranting, Lance wasn't sure whether to try and comfort her or if it was better to just slowly back away. But as it turned out, he didn't have to make a decision because Allura made it for him.

"Lance!" 

"Yes, ma'am," Lance squeaked, his entire body tensing up at Allura's sharp tone.

Hesitating, Allura's expression suddenly softened, the princess carefully choosing her words. She opened her mouth as though wanting to urgently say something, but ended up staying silent. Eyes dropping to the floor, she backed away slightly, giving Lance room again. "Never mind," she eventually sighed. "I am glad that you seem fine again." A smile returned to her face, albeit only weakly.

"Yeah… I'm fine." The smile didn't quite reach Lance's eyes, slowly melting away again the second Allura looked elsewhere. A hand coming down on his shoulder made him flinch slightly, before he noticed that it was Shiro standing beside him now. 

"Are you really okay?" the older paladin asked, concern written all over his face.

The completely earnest tone and honest worry swimming in Shiro's eyes choked Lance up for a second, before he quickly regained his bearings. "Yeah. Good. Everything's good."

Clearly, Shiro wasn't convinced. "Well, if you ever need to talk to anybody… I'm here." A thin smile on his face, Shiro turned away to address the rest of the team. "We'll stay in orbit for now, so we won't involve anyone else in case the Galra attack. Be prepared to fight at all times. Ideally, the Galra won't even know we're here and just leave again. If it comes down to a battle, keep in mind that Keith might still not be awake at that time and that we might not be able to form Voltron. Hunk, how long till the Blue Lion is fully repaired?"

"Should be done by the end of the day," Hunk said, already looking eager to return to his tools.

"Good." Shiro nodded, eyes settling on Pidge next. "Pidge, find anything useful yet?"

Sighing, Pidge deflated slightly. "Aside from info on Persian tourist spots and the history of Orak breakfast traditions, nothing." 

"Okay, keep looking. I'm sure you'll find something eventually. That's all." After the short briefing, Shiro made to leave but was stopped by Lance.

"What about me?" he asked, eyes shining with both hope and uncertainty.

A long, drawn out sigh left Shiro as he eyed Lance with somewhat sorrowful eyes. "You're not gonna do anything. You're still not fully healed and your lion's out of commission. For now, you're gonna stay in your room and rest."

"N-No, I'm fine!" Lance protested. "I came out of the pod, so I'm all healed!" 

"Take it from someone who recently came out of one of those pods: they can heal a lot, but not everything. _Rest._ "

Before Lance had a chance to argue further, Shiro simply left, smiling at him and effectively shutting him up. He knew Shiro meant well, but Lance couldn't stop himself from staring after his leader with a hint of frustration as he walked away.

* * *

Night came. Lance laid wide awake, eyes staring up into the thick darkness. It made no difference whether he closed his eyes or not; either way, he didn't feel any more or less tired. He desperately held on to the serene emptiness of his mind, the fact that any thought or emotion seemed to simply fall through the gaps of his mind, never to fully manifest and be perceived. Night in space easily seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Seeing how it was really only the Castle simulating Earth cycles of time, it was easy to lose a once solid grasp of it passing. 

The second Lance noticed the first wisps of shadowy voices crawling up on him, he jumped out of bed and left his room. His feet quickly carried him towards the kitchen, where he almost expected Keith to be sitting with an old, worn out book and a cup of something dark and steaming. But he wasn't there and despite knowing the kitchen would be empty, Lance still felt some disappointment. 

Even without Keith there, Lance found a kettle filled to the brim with Coran's mystery drink. He poured himself a cup as he listened to the Castle quietly humming and softly vibrating, almost like an enormous purring cat. As he took his first sip, he noticed the restless energy trailing through his body, causing him to continue strolling around instead of sitting down. He walked around the Castle like that, sipping at his steaming cup, body suddenly too full of energy to be able to stay still. Eventually, he ended up in front of the infirmary. He could see light streaming out from inside, prompting him to step inside to see what was going on. 

"Lance!" Coran's bubbly voice immediately greeted him. "Taking a nightly walk around the Castle, I see! It's just delightful when everything is so quiet and peaceful, isn't it?"

"Yeah…" Lance simply mumbled back. "It really is." 

Coran seemed to sense something in Lance's mood, since he simply smiled and turned back around to whatever he was doing instead of continuing to chat the paladin up.

Grateful for the moment of silence, Lance used that chance to take a look around the room. Coran was cleaning the cryo-replenisher that Lance had been in, tools and washcloths littering the floor and a little work table. Keith was still in his pod, motionless, face unusually relaxed. Lance found himself right in front of him, eyeing the other paladin's face, how unevenly his hair was cut in some places, the tiny, faint mole at the corner of his lips, the Orak markings still visibly running up out of his collar and splaying over his neck. There were so many things Lance felt he could understand by simply studying Keith's face, yet none of it made him feel as though he actually knew him any better. Keith was both simple and complicated. Aloof, yet passionate. Compared to him, Lance felt painfully plain. 

"If I left for a bit…" Coran suddenly spoke up, pulling Lance's attention away from Keith, "you wouldn't go off on a solo mission again, would ya?"

Chuckling, Lance grinned and waved the man off. "Nah, I've learned my lesson. I'll be good."

"Great! See you in a jiffy!" 

Lance watched Coran speed off with a smile, already missing the comforting presence of the Altean. Once he couldn't even hear the sound of Coran jogging away anymore, he turned his attention back to Keith in his pod, setting down his cup as he walked closer. Lance wasn't sure why he was even here, why his body had moved here on its own. "Why do I care so much?" he asked the otherwise empty room, eyes trained on Keith's still face. "You're rude, impulsive and you never understand any of the jokes I throw at you. Do you even know what sarcasm is?" 

Suddenly, the cryo-pod hissed and buzzed, its door cracking open and thick white fog pooling out. 

"No, no, no, no, wait, no, oh my god." Lance fumbled around, completely stumped as to how to react, when suddenly Keith was opening his eyes. "Uh… hi?"

Swaying, it took Keith a moment to regain his bearings. His until then relaxed expression immediately morphed into a frown. "Wha–" He stumbled forward, legs still unsteady.

Lance had to catch him and almost got knocked over himself. "Whoa, take it easy."

Rubbing his eyes, Keith had to hold on to Lance for a moment before he was able to stand on his own. "Sorry."

Lance could feel the other shaking slightly, cold still permeating through his entire body. He briefly entertained the thought of offering his jacket, but figured that Keith would only reject it by saying he was perfectly fine. He would do the same after all.

"How long was I out for?" Keith asked once he was standing on his own and had mostly regained control of his own body.

"Two days." Lance could see the gears turning in Keith's mind, the Red Paladin slowly coming up with the same questions Lance had hours ago. "We passed the trial," he cut in before Keith could inevitably ask. "But we still need to go through some kind of final trial for the Orak to acknowledge us." 

"Final trial?"

"Good thing you finally decided to wake up," Lance continued. "We're about to hit the deadline, you know." 

Something like confusion flashed across Keith's face for a moment, before disappearing again. "What happened? To us?"

Sighing, Lance let himself fall into a rolling chair that creaked and moaned under his weight. "Seems like you got caught in a snowstorm and I was stranded in a desert or something."

"What?" 

Seeing the utter confusion in Keith's eyes, Lance almost felt sorry for joking around. Almost. "I had first degree burns. You had first degree frost bites." He shrugged, spinning in his chair. "No one knows where those came from. I was hoping you could fill me in."

"I don't know either," Keith immediately grumbled, crossing his arms. "All I remember is…" His face suddenly went blank. But then, almost within an instant, anger filled his dark eyes. "You just left!"

"Uh…"

"You fucking asshole! You left me in that cave and just ran after that… that…!" He trailed off, expression turning puzzled again. "What was that thing again? Wasn't there…?"

"I must've fought that guardian thing and won, right?" Lance unconsciously rolled closer towards Keith, his chair screeching quietly. "I mean that was the requirement to pass the trial."

"Yeah…" Keith eyed Lance for a moment, gaze intense, eyebrows still drawn together. "You don't remember what happened? At all?"

"No, nothing." With Keith glaring at the floor, Lance found himself staring at his teammate. Looking at him now, awake and standing in front of him, he felt oddly… _familiar._ As though Lance had known him all his life, had known him long enough to know all his quirks and oddities, the way he would react to certain words, certain actions. 

Lance suddenly felt like he understood why Keith was the way he was, what had turned him into the person that was standing here in front of him now. The question was why? Why was his perception of Keith suddenly so crystal clear? Where Keith, to him, had once been a book with only few pages filled with mushed, blurry words, he was now a tome full of neatly printed sentences, paragraphs even. Yet that tome still felt distant, out of reach. Like he had a photo album filled to the brim with snapshots, yet all of them were murky and badly lit.

"I was worried."

The words pulled Lance back into reality, out of his train of thoughts. "What?" He was suddenly faced with Keith's intense gaze.

"I…" Keith's face was easy to read, his emotions so clearly displayed on his face. He was very honest in that way. "When I thought that you might never come back, I…" He closed the distance between them slightly, grabbing the edge of the table next to Lance to support himself a little. He was still slightly favouring his uninjured leg. "I got scared. I've never felt like that before. I've never had someone just walk away from me like that. I've never… felt so _helpless_ before. Even when Shiro went missing, I…!" He trailed off, seemingly realising how emotional he was getting, voice shaking and fingers digging into the table. "Don't ever do that again. I don't think I can handle going through that kinda thing again."

In the moment, it had seemed like the only solution. Even in hindsight, Lance still couldn't come up with a better alternative. They both had known that it was the only way. "Wasn't it you who suggested I go by myself?"

"Yeah! But I didn't think you'd actually do it!"   

Lance almost laughed at how quickly Keith could switch from looking soul-crushed to oozing anger from every pore. "Hey, main character always does the most reckless stuff."

For a moment, Keith seemed suspicious at Lance essentially dodging the topic at hand, but eventually rolled his eyes. "I'd rather eat Coran's food goo for the rest of my life than be part of a story where you're the main character."

"Wow, rude," Lance simply snapped back, spinning in his chair again. "You'd just be a side character anyway." 

"Oh?" That seemed to pique Keith's interest. "What kinda character?"

Shrugging, Lance continued spinning. "I dunno. Random classmate number six. Some extra that gets killed in a disaster movie and does the Wilhelm scream." He eyed Keith for a moment as he spun, catching a glimpse of his annoyed frown. "Rival, at best. You know, the guy that seems cool in the beginning but ultimately gets bested by the main character." 

Suddenly, Lance's chair stopped spinning. One hand still on the table, the other keeping the chair in place, Keith was leaning into Lance, close enough that they were breathing the same air. 

"How about main love interest?" Keith suddenly asked, the warmth of his breath washing over Lance's face as he spoke, contrasting the cold still radiating from his body. 

Gulping, Lance felt trapped by Keith's dark gaze. He couldn't look away. "Don't say stuff like that."

There was a small pause, in which Keith's eyes wandered down to Lance's lips for a split second. "Like what?"  

"Stuff you don't actually mean." Lance was amazed that his voice came out so steady. He desperately hoped Keith couldn't see just how hot his ears felt, a flash of heat suddenly shooting over his neck and face.

In no way deterred by Lance's deepening scowl, Keith didn't budge an inch. "What if I _do_ mean it?" 

"Yeah…" Lance firmly held Keith's gaze, the sound of the other breathing oddly electrifying, "what if you did? What then?"

Eyebrows briefly furrowing into a confused frown, Keith didn't respond right away. Apparently having his question thrown back at him was not something he had anticipated. "What're you so afraid of?" he suddenly asked.

Now it was Lance's turn to be stunned into silence. He clenched his teeth, almost pouting. 

"I'm not going to hurt you." 

Lance suddenly remembered their conversation in the forest, the fact that Keith had, to some degree, figured out what had happened to him in Velanos, specifically in prison. He himself was foggy on the details, but apparently he had let enough slip for Keith to pick up on. "Whatever you're thinking right now, you're wrong."

"What am I thinking?" 

To Lance, Keith's tone sounded almost mocking. Even though it was probably just his annoyed mind warping his perception, it still did. "That you need to help me and treat me like some hurt animal. Don't. I'm fine." 

"Then why are you here, in the middle of the night, instead of being asleep in your bed like everybody else?"

Finally, Lance had nothing to answer with. He knew Keith was right. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, something was wrong. Keith knew, Shiro knew, Hunk probably had known ever since the moment they had found him in Cesar's lab. It was only a matter of time until the others noticed it as well. And then… "Back off."

Keith didn't immediately comply, despite Lance's cold, harsh tone. But after squaring his jaw in an annoyed manner, he finally let go of the chair and stepped away, giving Lance enough room to stand up and leave. Which he did the second he had a chance, nearly running out of the room in his attempt to get away from Keith.

Lance didn't even glance at Keith as he left, so he didn't see the way the other clenched his fists or kicked the table as soon as he was out of sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter and more art in two weeks! I'll probably continue updating biweekly regardless of my progress with the final chapters, just to give myself enough time for the art. 
> 
> And as promised, [here's a link](https://monti-b-lewis.tumblr.com/post/166378267262/a-m-n-e-s-i-a-chapter-10-of-night-terrors-is) to the full artwork (and my tumblr).


	11. Hyperactivity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: there's something that could be classified as self-harm in the beginning of this chapter. 
> 
> Also, I'll put a link to the artwork in the end note.

As soon as the space equivalent of morning came around, Team Voltron was immediately mobilised to head back to the Orak moon. Only a small air craft left the Castle, Allura, Shiro, Keith and Lance the only ones boarding it. They did so hoping to not attract the Galra's attention in case they were near. Meanwhile Coran, Hunk, Pidge stayed back to watch over the Castle and provide support from afar. Fortunately, the journey to the Orak moon went by without any major incidents. Shiro and Allura did notice the frigid atmosphere between Keith and Lance, but attributed it to their usual squabbles. And so, most of their trip was spent in somewhat awkward silence. 

Their arrival in the Orak village was met with cheering and flowers being thrown in the air. Where the atmosphere had once been slightly cold and dismissive, it was now warm and welcoming. It gradually tickled a smile out of Lance, who was still hesitant to actually respond in any way. He was unwittingly hiding behind Shiro's taller frame, eyes mostly directed at the ground. Even after passing the trials and officially gaining the Orak's approval, he still couldn't quite face them. The gazebo-like structure at the centre of the village felt oddly familiar by now, comfortable even. Despite his heart racing, Lance felt relatively peaceful sitting with the elders once again. What was harder this time around was looking Keith in the eyes; he was glaring daggers and Lance was sure the look in his own eyes wasn't any less hostile.    

Of course, the elders noticed, sending what had to be looks full of confusion at both Allura and Shiro. 

 _"Bond defect?"_ Allura's orb translated their clicks and coos. 

"Nothing to that extent," the princess immediately reassured them with a nervous smile. "This is very… common human behaviour. They will be fine in a minute." She accentuated her words with a pointed glare at both Keith and Lance, who immediately sat up straighter and made an effort to school their expressions into something looking less frustrated and annoyed.

The ritual that then followed was… strange, to say the least. At first the elders were simply grinding herbs and flowers in a bowl. But then Lance's heart dropped when he saw one of them pull out a creature of some kind. It looked slimy and moist and very much dead. Immediately, Lance recalled his and Keith's attempt to catch fish in the forest, namely the creature they had managed to pull out, the thing Keith had thrown back into the water for looking completely inedible. He sent a questioning look at Keith, mouthing "From the forest?", to which the other nodded sneakily, horror in his eyes. Lance nearly gagged when the elder suddenly cut open the fish-like creature's gut, a horrifying stench immediately permeating the air. Lance had been to a fish market a few times back on Earth and not even the seediest, mouldiest, worst cleaned places in those markets smelled this bad. It was the pure, undiluted fragrance of rotting death. It was hard not to gag. Or cry. 

The fish's innards made goopy, wet sounds as they dropped into the bowl full of once pleasant smelling herbs. Lance and Keith watched on in horror as everything was ground and mixed, wondering what the mixture's purpose was. 

The elder in question eventually stopped mixing and set the bowl down with a small thud. _"Bleed and take in."_

Confused, Lance turned towards Allura. "What?" 

Keith, Shiro and Allura all seemed unable to provide answers, so the princess was about to speak up and ask the elders, when a beeping noise suddenly sounded. At first startled, Allura then tapped a finger to her earring, prompting a radio channel to open up.

 _"They mean some kind of blood oath,"_ Pidge's voice sounded, reaching Lance and Keith as well through their own devices. _"At least that's what I think. I might be interpreting this passage wrong."_

"No, that makes sense, Pidge," Allura immediately reassured the Green Paladin. "Thank you."

Lance gulped when Allura sent an expectant look towards him and Keith, who wasted no time in pulling out a knife. After pulling off his fingerless glove, Keith slid the knife over his palm and winced slightly, before passing it on to Lance, who only took it with some hesitation. He stared at it for a few seconds, eyeing its bloodied edge, before slowly placing the other, still clean side on his own palm. Grimacing as he cut into his own hand, he could feel the burn of the blade cutting through his skin. As he struggled not to let out a chain of expletives and general whining, he handed the knife back to Keith. 

The two then somewhat cluelessly stared at each other, both waiting for the other to make the first move. Keith eventually raised his hand, palm facing Lance. Eyes narrowing into an exasperated look, Lance half-heartedly raised his the same way. "This isn't how you do a blood oath," he hissed when the elders were too busy fiddling with their tools to notice. 

"What?" 

The elders seemed to perk up hearing Keith's louder voice, resulting in the brunet hastily reaching forward to grab Lance's hand. He laced their fingers together, pulling Lance's limp hand towards himself when the other tried pulling his hand away. Seeing Lance immediately tense up, looking ready to cuss at him, he suddenly smirked.

Lance could do nothing but grind his teeth, glare and wait for the elders to free him from this torture.

_"Mix,"_ one of the elders then demanded, carefully setting down two small bowls filled with herb goo in front of the two paladins.

Yet again puzzled, Lance glanced towards Allura and Shiro. "Mix what?" he whispered.

 _"Your blood,"_ Pidge replied, the sound of typing accompanying the answer. _"You're supposed to mix your blood in there."_

Immediately, Lance's pulled his hand out of Keith's grasp, his entire arm feeling oddly tingly. Looking at his palm, it was still oozing blood, little droplets trailing down his wrist. He followed Keith's example and held his closed fist over his bowl and waited for a drop to fall in it. He tried not to think about what he was supposed to do with this goo once it was finished.

_"Take in."_

With horror, Lance finally understood the elder's words and gulped. The colour drained out of his face as he stared into the bowl filled with unidentifiable brown goo. He could make out little bits and pieces, chunks of some kind. But none of it was clear enough to be able to tell what exactly was in the bowl. "Is this safe to ingest?" 

 _"It should be,"_ Pidge answered. _"The plants over there are pretty similar to what we've been eating in the Castle."_

"What's with aliens and weird goo?" Lance immediately whined, staring down into his bowl with a pained look. Glancing across from him, he could see Keith struggling as well, his face white as a sheet. Immediately seeing a chance to one-up the other, Lance plugged his nose and chugged the contents of the bowl, determined to swallow everything before it could even hit his tongue. For a brief moment, the thought of all the diseases he could contract from this type of thing hit him, but then the goo touched his tongue and all thought was erased from his mind. 

As the Orak cheered and began celebrating, Allura and Shiro were watching, hoping and praying that Lance and Keith would be able to keep it together. They could see it in their eyes, in the way the two began to sweat and fidget: they were both about to hurl.

After the elders exchanged some words, they told the two struggling paladins that they were free to stand up and go elsewhere. All the while, Lance and Keith were still fighting with their stomachs. Trembling, they got up on shaky legs, both Allura and Shiro quickly coming up to covertly help them walk. With the Orak busy jumping around and chatting excitedly, no one seemed to notice the two paladins being sat down away from prying eyes. 

"Are you okay?" Shiro immediately asked when they were out of earshot. "Do you want anything to drink? Some–" He was interrupted by Keith waving him off, a gurgling noise coming from his stomach. 

While Lance held his stomach, expression pained as he quietly whined to Allura, Keith sat with his face pressed into his interlaced fingers, foot tapping incessantly. It took a few minutes, in which there were several close calls, but after a while their stomachs seemed to finally calm down. Since the Orak were already sending them odd, questioning looks, they eventually stood back up and headed into the hut the elders had disappeared into. According to Allura and Shiro, it was their equivalent of a conference room, the place important matters were discussed. 

Lance was still a little wobbly, but knowing Keith was going through the same torment made him grin to himself. He could hear Shiro quietly talking to Pidge and Hunk through a private channel and wondered what it was that they were discussing to make Shiro look so engrossed and focused. As soon as everyone was settled in and seated around the hut, Shiro ended his conversation and focused on the elders.

"Thank you for the warm welcome." Shiro smiled at the small aliens, waiting for the translation orb to convey his words. "With the Blue Paladin now redeemed, I was hoping we could discuss your… _relationship_ with the Velonians. I remember you saying that you have a long history." 

The elders briefly glanced at each other, seemingly communicating silently in some way, before one of them stepped forward. _"Velonians can't trust. Poison you. Stab eye out."_

Noticing the paladins looking slightly confused, Allura stepped in. "I think _having your eye stabbed out_ is an Orak metaphor for being betrayed."

"So the Velonians betrayed the Orak?" Shiro whispered, before turning back to the Orak. "What happened between you and the Velonians?" 

 _"Long ago, beginning in harmony,"_ another elder continued. _"One orb, one world. Grow together and learn together. Long prosper."_

"Do you…" Allura trailed off, the paladins looking to her to somehow decipher the words, watching as her eyebrows drew together in concentration. "You mean to say you used to live on Velanos? Together with the Velonians? And you… developed and gained knowledge alongside each other?"

The elders nodded, something like happiness at being understood shining in their eyes. _"Velonians greedy. More knowledge! More prosper! Velanos rich. Orak must leave."_

"Did the Velonians drive you out?" Shiro immediately questioned, anger already swimming in his eyes. "What for?"

"Velanos is a planet filled with precious resources," Allura sighed, combing a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "That's what tends to happen when two intelligent races clash. One either gets driven out or… worse." She briefly paused, sending a remorseful look towards the Orak. "This moon is unlikely to provide materials beyond the earth itself. That seems to be the reason the Orak live so in harmony with the forest instead of advancing the way the Velonians have. You can't build skyscrapers and jets without metal."

Hearing the words, Keith couldn't help but speak up. "So the Velonians pretty much chased the Orak out because they felt threatened by their intelligence?"

"Seems like it," Shiro mumbled, crossing his arms. "And that brings up another question: where did the fighter jets that the Orak used come from?"

"I was about to ask," Allura chimed in, settling an imploring gaze on the elders.

Again, the Orak seemed to communicate amongst themselves before responding. For the first time, they seemed truly hesitant to answer. _"Galra."_

"Who would've thought," Lance grumbled, glaring at the floor. 

Shiro simply nodded and uncrossed his arms, making an effort to look a little less imposing. "How much do the Galra know? Why would they offer their help?"

 _"Galra want information. Need technology."_  

A young Orak suddenly stepped out from the back to hand Allura a large piece of parchment filled with drawings and text. Allura closely scrutinised the various diagrams and sketches, eyes slowly widening. "This…"

"What is it?" Shiro asked, staring at the parchment as well, but not understanding it in the slightest.

Silent but focused, Allura suddenly pulled out some kind of device that scanned the blueprints, blue light tracing it from top to bottom. After entering a series of keys into the device, Allura's hand shot towards her headset. "Hunk, Pidge, can you tell us what these are for?"

 _"Let me take a look,"_ Hunk immediately replied, going silent for quite a while as Pidge seemed to join him. _"Guys, I think these are blueprints to a device that can restrain the lions. A powerful one."_

"What?!" both Lance and Keith exclaimed in unison, immediately coming up to look at the parchment as well. It was hard to decipher on first glance, but after staring at the various sketches, there indeed seemed to be drawings of lions within circles and runes. 

 _"Galra not care who."_ Another elder that hadn't previously spoken walked up. _"Only want technology."_

Slowly, Lance was assembling the pieces in his head and while the others were still busy trying to decipher the blueprint, a sense of dread suddenly filled him. "So why did you attack the Velonians?" His voice was shaky, lungs suddenly feeling too small to muster up a louder and steadier one. "Was it to…"

_"Retrieve technology."_

Allura, Shiro and Keith finally turned away from the blueprint, Shiro the first to walk back to Lance's side and address the Orak. "You mean to say the Velonian's stole blueprints like these and built the device the Galra want? Is that what they used to trap and isolate the Blue Lion?"

When the elder simply nodded, the paladins and the princess could only look at each other helplessly, wondering just how deep the Velonians' ties to the Galra were. 

"If all this is true," Keith said after a moment of silence, "then why did Vera send us here? Why send us here to find out all their dirty little secrets?"

Hearing the anger lining Keith's words, Lance immediately stepped in. "She probably doesn't know. This was all a long time ago after all. And Cesar was the mastermind who had some kind of deal with the Galra, so I don't think the rebels know about this. And they just gave us my lion back! They wouldn't have done that if they were allied with the Galra!"  

"I think he's right, Keith," Shiro then added, noticing that Keith still looked unconvinced. "They had several chances to capture us and hand us over to the Galra, but they didn't. It's still too soon to come to any conclusions about their alliances."

Keith still looked reluctant, but nodded anyway. Allura was about to ask another question, when they all heard a quiet beeping noise, indicating someone from the Castle trying to reach them again. 

 _"Guys!"_ Pidge's excited voice sounded, _"I just found something! Ask them when exactly they were driven away from Velanos!"_

Shiro immediately took the initiative and faced the elders again. "When exactly did your dispute with the Velonians happen? How long have you been living here, on this moon?"

The elders briefly discussed, seeming unsure of the answer themselves. _"Five decafebes,"_ one eventually replied.

"How long is that?" Lance immediately questioned.

 _"Something like over 250 years,"_ Pidge explained. _"That just about lines up with the Great Beta Uprising on Velanos."_

"The what now?" It sounded vaguely familiar, but Lance couldn't recall ever hearing about an event like that.

 _"I'm not sure about the details,"_ Coran suddenly chimed in. _"But apparently there was a large-scale uprising of the beta caste on Velanos, which resulted in the upturning of the exclusively alpha-lead, monarchic government."_

"Wait, I remember Cesar talking about this!" Lance then shouted, eyes wide. "I think he said that Velanos is the way it is now because alphas and omegas are somehow lesser, that they get affected by their hormones or something. That's why alphas and omegas have to take pills to suppress their urges. He thought betas are more level-headed and that's why they rule over alphas and omegas. He made it sound like alphas are these macho brutes that only ever get into fights and that omegas are just wastes of air."

"That seems to be the common sentiment on Velanos," Allura added. "Even when my father tried negotiating with them back then, they simply could not see eye to eye. Even after all these years, they cannot come to terms with the differences even within their own race. I am sorry to say that I am not in the least surprised by any of these revelations."

Shiro looked conflicted, looking back and forth between the princess and his other two teammates, before focusing on the Orak agin. "So to summarise," he began, waiting until Allura's expression softened and she gave him her full attention, "the Galra offered you fighter jets in exchange for your technology, but you used those fighters to attack the Velonians and retrieve your blueprints and any devices that were built based on them. Is that correct?"

_"Yes."_

Shiro sighed, apparently beginning to understand the Orak's motives somewhat. "Aren't the Galra going to come after you for that?"

_"Likely."_

"You're not afraid?"

The Orak elder nodded sagely, looking the least bit scared. _"Not only Orak warriors brave. Orak scientists brave."_

Frown finally easing up, a smile finally returned to Shiro's face. It almost immediately melted away again though. "If you were trying to prevent your tech from falling into Galra hands all along, why didn't you just talk to us sooner?"

 _"Prove protector of universe good,"_ the elder simply replied.

Shiro didn't seem to have any questions beyond that. What the Orak were saying sounded plausible enough, giving the paladins and Allura little reason to distrust them. Particularly Allura seemed reassured in her distrust of the Velonians, both Shiro and Keith not making any attempt to dig further. Realising this, Lance couldn't help but speak up. 

He grabbed the translation orb out of the air and set it to silent, before turning to his teammates with badly concealed frustration in his eyes. "Are you really just gonna believe all of this word for word?"

"We have no reason not to, Lance," Shiro tried to appease him. "It's a fact that Cesar had a deal with the Galra. The Orak suddenly turning against them after being peaceful for so long coincides with that. I agree with you that the rebels probably have no knowledge of any of this, but we don't know how long that will last. The Galra have resources. Resources the Velonians might need if they want to rebuild themselves."

"The Galra only destroy," Lance spat. "They don't help struggling planets rebuild themselves."

"Unless they have something they need." Allura took the translation orb from Lance's hands, but didn't turn it back on. "Many planets have made the mistake of trusting the Galra and were backstabbed after they obtained what they needed. The Galra might help you, aid you when you are troubled, even offer you protection. But in the end, like you said, they only destroy." Translation orb nestled in both her hands, Allura's eyes were completely focused on the glowing lines running along its smooth surface. "With their history, I do not doubt the Velonians would get cocky and think they could use the Galra without having their fingers burned in the process."

"They… they wouldn't…" Lance knew his words held no water. There was no way for him to convince his teammates otherwise; they had already made up their minds. "Are you forgetting that Baki risked his own neck helping you out?"

"I don't trust him," Keith suddenly chimed in. "He's shady as hell. I don't get how you ever trusted him."

Sighing, Lance crossed his arms. "The choice was between him or Cesar. And Cesar didn't exactly make me feel welcome or safe." 

"And Baki did?"

Confusion flashing across his face, Lance carefully took in Keith's expression, the look in his eyes. What he found almost made his heart stop. "Are you j–" He cut himself off, remembering who else was in the room. "Yeah, he did. At least he was pretty up front about what he wanted from the beginning."

Shiro seemed to notice how much the words riled Keith up, because he suddenly stepped in and gently pulled the latter back by his shoulder, least he might go off on Lance. "Point is, we need to get back to the Castle and plan out our next steps, see what the Galra are up to. And no matter if we trust the Velonians or not, we still need to get back to Vera about this mission and see if we can get the rebels to drop their weapons. Our objective here is still making sure everything gets resolved peacefully."

That seemed to get Keith to settle down, although all he did was retreat into a corner to glare at nothing in particular. 

"I still want to discuss some things," Allura then said, turning the translation orb back on. "You can leave, if you want. I'll be fine on my own."

"I'll stay too." After directing a gentle smile at Allura, Shiro sent a stern look towards both Lance and Keith. "You two should probably take a walk outside and cool your heads."

It was clear this wasn't a recommendation but an order, prompting both paladins in question to moodily walk out, neither looking even anywhere near the other. 

Walking out of the cozy hut and into the chilly afternoon air, Lance pulled his jacket closer around his body. To say he felt complicated would be an understatement. Not only did he still feel guilty about hurting seemingly well meaning aliens, now the aliens he had befriended were turning out to be backstabbing assholes. Was his judgement really this lousy? He had always thought of himself as being able to read other people quite well, but maybe the same didn't apply for aliens. Of course he knew Baki wasn't entirely honest; calling Baki _honest_ was equivalent to calling a snake _fluffy_. But it was undeniable that the guy held more complexity beyond being a typical lying politician. He had a seemingly long history with Cesar, a large network of people willing to aid him and provide information, incredible resources at the tip of his fingers. In hindsight, Lance was incredibly lucky to have him on his side. If he had been up against both Baki and Cesar, he probably wouldn't be standing here.

Lance let out a somewhat unmanly shriek when his wrist was suddenly grabbed. Out of the blue, he was being dragged into an empty hut filled to the ceiling with clothes, fabrics and other unidentifiable junk, a door loudly was slammed behind him and his back pushed against a wall. Having closed his eyes, Lance slowly peeled them open to see who it was that had trapped him in there. His heart raced thinking it was someone dangerous, especially since he was completely unarmed safe for a knife, but then Keith's deep dark eyes were looking back at him. Keith had both his hands against the wall next to Lance's head, trapping him in between his arms.  

"So you want me to be upfront, huh?" Keith hissed, eyes glowing even in the semi-darkness of the hut. "Good, no more games."

Lance could feel Keith's breath fan over his lips with every word. During the silence that followed, Lance finally noticed just how close Keith's face was, how much of his body was only inches away, how much warmth he gave off – seriously, the guy was like a living furnace. Lance would be lying if he said he wasn't affected at all. "What're you doing?"

"What I should've done back in that forest."

"Creep me out?" Lance managed to muster up a somewhat lopsided grin. "Don't worry, you always creep me out."

"I mean it."

Trying to appear undeterred by Keith's tone or the look in his eyes or the way his body felt against his, Lance quietly cleared his throat. "So are you ever gonna let me leave, or–"

"No!" Keith immediately barked. "You're just gonna run away again and I need you to listen to me." He took a deep breath, seemingly preparing himself for something, eyes staring into Lance's intensely; at least more intensely than usual. "I guess I don't hate you," he said, tone making it sound like he was struggling to form words, eyes regularly flicking away from Lance's eyes to other parts of his face. Namely his lips. "You're not completely annoying."

"Try again." Lance would be making fun of Keith for being so out of it, if not for his own heart gearing up to jump out of his ribcage.

A sharp, frustrated sigh left Keith. "I don't know what else to tell you, okay? All I know is that if I don't kiss you right fucking now, I'll go insane and might end up punching a hole through one of these walls and if we're unlucky, that could get us both banned from this moon."

"That really doesn't sound fun." Lance sucked in a breath when Keith came even closer, their foreheads touching now.

"Yeah… not at all."

Lance couldn't find the strength to reply to that any further. He was drowning in Keith's eyes, the warmth of his body, his scent. He was still caged in by his arms, trapped by his gaze. The way his heart fluttered yet hammered within his chest was almost painful.

Finally, Lance closed the short distance to press his lips against Keith's. A tingly heat immediately zapped through his body. Keith's lips felt both rough and warm against his, the taste of his breath intoxicating. Lance's hands quickly ended up tangled in the other's messy mullet, fingers gently dragging through his hair and teasing a groan out of Keith. Their bodies finally collided, the wall creaking behind Lance when Keith pushed him in further. His hands had finally left the wall to settle on Lance's back and for his fingers to curl into his jacket. Lance moaning into his mouth seemed to only set him off even more, making him let out a small growl, coaxing him into almost devouring Lance's mouth.

Something clattered to the floor when they moved, but neither heard or cared. They stumbled into the middle of the hut, completely engrossed in each other. It came as a surprise when Keith suddenly slipped on a rug of some sort, tumbling to the floor and almost taking Lance down with him. But he didn't have to, since Lance didn't waste any time following him to the floor. Their lips found each other again almost instantly, Lance all but falling into Keith's lap, hands beginning to explore the other's body. Keith's neck, his shoulders, his back, muscles toned and lean, firm under his clothes. The need to feel all of him without the barrier of his clothes was almost overwhelming, rushing through Lance's mind like fireworks. He began tearing at Keith's clothes, another moan passing his lips when he managed to pull off his jacket. He was about to slide his hands under that tight black shirt, when Keith's hands began exploring his body as well, gliding over his back, his sides, before reaching his waist.

_"It's been a while since I've had my hands around an omega's waist."_

Keith's hands were on his–

No…

 _A stranger's hands were on his waist_.

_"So scrawny. I usually like them curvy, but this will do."_

Keith realised that something was wrong almost immediately. Lance suddenly froze in his lap, going rigid, breathing becoming noticeably more erratic. "Lance–"

The second he spoke up, it seemed like a spell was broken.

All of a sudden, Lance shot up, frantically stumbling away from Keith. "I can't."

"What?" Slowly, Keith stood up as well, unsure how to approach the other. "What's going on? Are you okay?" His unease only grew when Lance began pacing in a haphazard circle like a caged animal. He could hear him breathe heavily, a slight shakiness to his movement. "Lance!"

The shout broke something in Lance, shattered his composure. Like a puppet having its strings cut, his limbs locked up and he slid to the ground. 

Feeling he had done something horribly wrong, Keith immediately followed, falling to his knees besides Lance. "I-I don't know what to do! What do I do? Lance–!"

"Hold me."

Seeing how touching Lance had lead to this situation, Keith felt uneasy about the request. "But–"

"Just do it!" 

Hesitating for another second, Keith then awkwardly took Lance into his arms. He wasn't sure how to place his arms, what to do with his hands, how to position himself. Most of that decision making was taken from him though when Lance suddenly clung to him, hard enough that it seemed like he would crumble to dust if he let go. All Keith could really do was try not to fall over and keep his hands on Lance's shoulders. 

Some time passed like that with Lance slowly calming down, his breathing returning to normal and the tension slowly melting out of his body. But even when he had mostly calmed down and returned to a more peaceful state, he still didn't let go of Keith.

"When I was a kid, I always had these horrible nightmares," Lance suddenly broke the silence, taking in the warmth Keith seemed to generate like a portable heater. "There was a time when I had them every night and I was scared to sleep."

Keith perked up at the words. "Night terrors?"

Shrugging, Lance briefly closed his eyes. "Probably, yeah."

"I had those too," Keith said quietly, almost wistfully.

Being unable to actually see Keith's face somehow made it easier to speak for Lance. "I'd crawl into my parents' bed in the middle of the night and cuddle up between them. Sometimes my mom held me, sometimes my dad did. They would squeeze me to the point that it almost hurt, but it always made the nightmares go away. Somehow it felt… _safe_." Lance couldn't see Keith's face, but he could imagine the lonely glint in his eyes, the one that seemed to occasionally flare up when Keith looked off into the endless expanses of the universe. "What did you do?" Lance eventually asked. "About the nightmares."

Keith simply shrugged. "Not much." He seemed to mull the question over another time, head lowering slightly in thought. "I just kind of… slept a lot less." 

"Is that where your insomnia came from?"

"I guess so."

At first, Lance didn't respond, simply taking in the sheer brunt of just how lonesome Keith's life had been. First left behind by his parents, then kicked out of the very garrison that probably had been the closest thing to a home. He couldn't imagine living that kind of life. Lance's family was such a huge part of his life and identity, if it was suddenly gone, he felt like he would simply cease to exist as well. "Tell me next time you have a nightmare," he said after a while. "I'll squeeze you to death."

Keith replied with a curt, dry chuckle. "That's one way to cure insomnia." Finally, after awkwardly keeping his arms around Lance this entire time, Keith seemed to finally relax and simply melted into the other. "Come to think of it, we slept pretty well in that cave in the forest, didn't we?"

Lance thought back to that night for a moment, about to respond, when a voice interrupted him.

"Keith?" it shouted. "Lance? Where are you guys?"

Keith immediately straightened up, tension returning to his limbs. "That's Shiro."   

The moment was shattered.

Lance pulled away and stared at Keith's face dipped in half shadow. And without saying anything further, he got up and made to leave.

"Hey, Lance! Wait!" Keith watched as Lance stopped on his way to the entrance, light streaming in from outside and framing him in sun rays. "About earlier–"

"Forget about it."

Stunned, it took Keith a second to regain his bearings. "What? But–"

"You saw first hand, didn't you?" Lance was struggling to keep his voice steady, refusing to show Keith any more weakness. "Why this isn't gonna work out." He could hear Keith standing up from the floor, gearing up to protest. "I don't wanna talk anymore, okay," Lance cut him off. "Just… forget about this." Lance then left the hut, legs feeling like jelly as he quickly ran up to Shiro. 

"Oh, there you are," Shiro greeted him, smiling. "What about Keith?"

Sliding his hands into his pockets, Lance shrugged. "Dunno."

Shiro frowned, sighing when Lance stayed silent. "Well, come on. One of the elders mentioned a shaman that might be able to tell us more about the forest. Allura already went ahead."

With everything that had happened with Keith, Lance had almost forgotten about the events in that forest. It seemed like a dream now, something his own mind had cooked up, only to let it slowly fade away and slide through the gaps of his mind like smoke. 

He wasn't sure if he really wanted to hear the truth. 

* * *

The sound of typing echoed and bounced off of the walls of the hangar. It was rapid yet steady, seeming to go on forever. But suddenly, it stopped. 

"Hey, Hunk," Pidge called, standing up to run towards the other paladin, laptop in hand. "I think I know how to circumvent that issue with the thrusters."

Hunk let out a deep sigh, visibly deflating where he sat still tinkering with the Blue Lion. "Pidge, we're not putting extra rocket launchers on Lance's lion. We could maybe swing that with Keith, but Lance would kill us if we did anything beyond fixing his baby without asking."

"His _what_?" Pidge immediately parroted, incredulous.

"It's what he calls it sometimes." When Pidge simply stared back at him helplessly, Hunk let out a sigh. "So guys sometimes have these weirdly romantic relationships with their cars, right?"

"Uh… I guess." Pidge shrugged, already back to typing around on the laptop. "So Lance has that with his lion?"

"Yeah! Except it actually talks back to him! I don't know what they talk about, but it's kinda creepy." With Pidge only paying half attention, it somehow drew Hunk to continue rambling. "I mean… me and my lion for example, we don't really… _talk_ as much as we just vibe well. But Lance actually somehow talks to his lion. Or at least he thinks he does."

Pidge briefly stopped typing, eyebrows pulling into a frown. "So he doesn't… _talk_ talk to it?"

"No? I don't think so." Briefly tightening a few screws and pushing around cables, Hunk then wiped a few beads of sweat from his chin. "He tried explaining it to me once. You know those people who talk to their pets? Like have actual conversations with them?"

"Sure, yeah."

"Well, that! But I don't know if his lion actually has real conversations with him or if it's just him putting words in its mouth."

Pidge shrugged, eyes already glued to the laptop monitor again. "I believe it. Allura did say the Blue Lion is the most accepting of new pilots. Maybe our lions will communicate with us more once we get to know them better."

Hunk mulled Pidge's words over for a moment, before nodding. "Yeah, I guess so. But seriously, you should see him. He sneaks in here sometimes just to sit and talk with it. It's kinda interesting to listen to. But also weird."

Watching Hunk for a moment, the way he rifled through his tools or cursed under his breath when something sparked needlessly, Pidge then finally closed the laptop. "Has he seemed… _off_ to you lately?"

"Lance?" Unaware of the serious expression on Pidge's face, Hunk shrugged with one shoulder, tongue briefly sticking out between his teeth in concentration. "I mean… yeah. Of course. I just figured that after everything he went through, it'd take a while for him to get back to normal." He quickly snuck a look at Pidge, noting the unusually grave look. "You don't think that's it?"

"I don't know, it's just… him and Keith both seem weird lately. Especially around each other." Arms crossed, Pidge began pacing slowly. "Something must've happened in that forest."

"No, actually, Keith has been acting weird even since before that," Hunk added, sitting back to look at Pidge. "I caught him staring at Lance a couple times. Like in a creepy, intense way."

"Did Lance do something to him?"

"Knowing Lance, he probably did, yeah." Again, Hunk wiped sweat from his face. "He's always had this weird obsession with Keith. Ever since we enrolled at the garrison, he just couldn't stop complaining about him. Meanwhile, Keith didn't even know who he was."

"That bad, huh?" Stopping in front of Hunk, Pidge glanced up to stare at the far away ceiling. "So why does he hate Keith so much?"

For a moment, Hunk hummed to himself in a contemplative manner. "I wouldn't really call it _hate_. I think Lance is just used to competing with other people, especially people who he thinks are better than him." Hunk flinched slightly when something in the Blue Lion's leg sparked again without him even doing anything. "He grew up in a big family, so I guess he just always felt like he had to compete with his siblings for his family's affection. Now that I think about, it's kinda sad how much he defines himself through all these superficial achievements. I just wish he'd… you know… _let go_ for once."

"I figured he had self esteem issues, but that makes it sound really bad." Seemingly realising just how deep this conversation was getting, Pidge put on a less dim face. "So that… super confident front he puts up… is any of that real?"

Still knuckle-deep in the lion's wiring, Hunk suddenly stopped. He stayed silent for a while, eyes trained on the floor. "I don't know if I wanna keep talking about him like this. You should probably just talk to him yourself."

Pidge seemed to realise that some kind of boundary had been crossed and began walking away. "Yeah, I guess. Sorry."

"Don't mind it." Hunk smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

Neither expected it and so they both nearly jumped out of their skins when it happened. The lights went off before anything else did. The room suddenly flashed red, a shrill sound coming along only a second later.

The Castle's alarm was going off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find the artwork on [my tumblr](https://monti-b-lewis.tumblr.com/post/166865499807/h-y-p-e-r-a-c-t-i-v-i-t-y-chapter-11-of-night). Next chapter will be up in two weeks again!
> 
> And as a quick side note: I've gotten questions about the inclusion of A/B/O dynamics in this story. I originally meant for that to have a bigger role, but ultimately used it mostly to worldbuild Velanos, that's why I tagged it the way I did. It's not going to be a huge plot point beyond that. Sorry to anyone who was hoping for more.


	12. Rapid Breathing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the little delay of this chapter. Didn't have the energy yesterday to really sit down and edit this entire chapter. I'll try uploading on a Friday again for the next chapter!

The Orak shaman lived secluded in her own little hut out in the deep forest. Guided by a group of the small aliens, Allura had gone ahead to meet her while the paladins had stayed behind to discuss things further with the elders. Their trek to the shaman went by in relative peace, with the forest oddly calm and quiet. There was the occasional sing-song of some kind of flying creature or a strange whistle, but otherwise silence. The sky was beginning to turn a soft pink, the horizon glowing magenta. 

When Shiro, Keith and Lance arrived to meet up with Allura, she was sitting with the shaman drinking some sort of steaming liquid from a cup. Despite her friendly smile, Allura seemed unsettled. 

"You're finally here," she sighed, standing up when the paladins stopped in front of her. The princess leaned into the three paladins slightly, prompting them to do the same. "She hasn't said much," she whispered, mindful not to come off too secretive. "She's insisting that until she sees you, she will not tell me anything. She won't even look me in the eyes!" Allura seemed mildly offended, but aware that whatever was happening wasn't a personal attack against her.

Shiro gently patted Allura's shoulder, sending a reassuring smile her way. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out."

With their guides retreating quietly and giving them space to talk in peace, all four then made their way to the shaman and sat down in front of her. The wooden stools set up around a fire place were barely large enough for them to sit on. The shaman didn't seem to react to their presence much, aside from her lowering her head slightly. Lance glanced at Allura, who kept her eyes solely on the elderly Orak. And so he did the same, waiting for something to happen.

Eventually, Allura cleared her throat. "The paladins have arrived."

Before the translation orb was even done giving out the words in the Orak language, the shaman's eyes slowly drifted towards the paladins, stopping at Lance's nervous face. "Aaah," she sighed, a thin smile creeping onto her wrinkly face. Very slowly, she got up from her stool and shuffled towards Lance. She reached for his face, but was too short to make it, so Lance carefully leaned into her hands. Her until then unfocused eyes then stared straight at his, pools of silver suddenly engulfing him. She hummed to herself as though in deep thought, looking to not be gazing at him, but through him. Or into him. 

Shiro quietly leaned towards Allura. "What's she doing?" he whispered.

Allura watched the shaman finally release Lance, before doing the same thing to Keith. "I don't know."

The shaman spent less time on Keith, only briefly looking into his eyes before nodding. "Connected."

It took the team a moment to process, but then the fact that the shaman had just spoken to them in their language finally sunk in. Fearful of bringing it up and somehow derailing the conversation, no one spoke up about it. They could always ask about it later.

"C-Connected?" Allura then repeated, still shocked. "How?"

With some trouble, the shaman sat back down on her stool and made herself comfortable. "Forest guardian connects minds, melts souls together. It creates harmony."

Allura shot a questioning look at Keith and Lance, but only received confused head shaking in response. 

"Warriors…" the shaman continued, "feel connected?"

Looking into the shaman's eyes felt like reality was shifting. To Lance, it was an oddly familiar feeling. Surely, he had felt like this before. "Are you the forest guardian?" Three heads snapped towards him, expressions bewildered, while the shaman began laughing, still in that same slow and languid way.

"Answering question with question. Smart child." She paused to stare at Lance for a moment, the paladin never breaking eye contact. "Yes and no." Clearly, she knew they wanted more than that. "Not much time left. Answer my question."

Narrowing his eyes, Lance made an effort to stare the shaman down, feeling as though she would go up in smoke if he ever looked away. "After being in that forest, I do feel… _different_ when I look at Keith." He noticed Keith's eyes immediately shooting towards him. "It's like I had this really intense dream that he was in, but I can't remember any of it. And now I feel really… _lonely_ whenever I look at him."

Keith sucked in a breath, eyes widening. When the shaman turned towards him, he immediately sat up straighter. "Me too," he said quietly, expression wary. "I suddenly have this constant, nagging fear in the back of my mind. I don't know what it is or why I'm afraid, I just… All I know is that I feel most afraid when I look at Lance and I don't know why."

Both Allura's and Shiro's faces fell. Evidently, neither had noticed this going on. But it also seemed like Keith and Lance were only realising these things now, at this very moment.

The entire time, the shaman had been nodding sagely. "Forest guardian connected your minds. It tried to create harmony. But harmony means different things."

Allura suddenly gasped and seemed to struggle not to sound too eager. "That sounds like mind-melding!"

"Mind-melding?" the shaman echoed, sounding like she was trying the word out, letting it roll over her tongue. "Yes, that is a word to use."

Eyes widening more and more, Allura composure slipped entirely. "Does that mean the Orak were involved in the development of that technology?" 

"Hmm…" The shaman suddenly seemed reluctant to answer, the corners of her mouth dipping. "Cannot say."

"As in you do not know, or you cannot say?" Allura pushed, but did not receive an answer. 

The shaman's gaze simply drifted off again. "Little time left." Before anyone could ask, she got up from her stool again and shuffled up to Lance, who unconsciously leaned down towards her again. Instead of grasping his face again, she put her small hands on his, her thin, wiry fingers covering his. "Do you miss… something?"

Even though the question seemed oddly ambiguous, Lance somehow understood. And looking into the shaman's eyes, he suddenly understood that she was as much of a forest guardian as whatever they had encountered in the forest. She seemed all-knowing and eternal, existing in some kind of in-between reality. Most likely, she lived secluded from her fellow Orak because of that. "Yeah… yeah, I do." 

The warmth of her hands sent Lance back to Earth, back to his home, his family. His little nephews constantly nagging him to play with them, his mother yelling from the kitchen for them to quiet down. His father sleeping in his armchair with the remote control in his hand, the television blaring with the chattering and yelling of some cheesy soap opera. Meanwhile, his grandparents sat in the garden, flirting like teenagers despite their age, while his older sister berated her poor husband again. 

"I miss my grandma's boliche," Lance then said. "It tastes like burnt old socks, but I really wanna eat it right now." Despite the grin on Lance's face, the shaking of his voice betrayed his real emotions. When the shaman softly patted his hands and simply nodded, it was such a simple act of compassion that it robbed Lance of breath. He lowered his head, trying his hardest not to cry. He had to bite his lip and hold his breath, least he'd let out a sob. 

"No time left."

Before anyone could question the shaman's words, everyone simultaneously heard the crackling and beeping of someone trying to contact them through their ear pieces.

"Coran?" Allura immediately called, concern shining in her eyes.

 _"The Castle is under attack!"_ Coran's voice suddenly shouted. _"We don't know who it is yet, but Pidge and Hunk are already on their way out to fight whoever it is!"_

Allura briefly looked conflicted, clearly wanting to ask the shaman more, but she quickly regained her composure. "We need to get back! Now!"

The paladins simply nodded, breaking out into a sprint. Lance quickly glanced back towards the shaman's little fireplace, only to find that in her place was nothing but a strange, foggy haze. 

As though she had gone up in smoke.

* * *

On their way back, Allura and the three paladins could already see fighter jets firing at the Castle in the distance. Two even smaller spacecrafts were zipping around, shooting lasers and taking out ship after ship. Clearly, Hunk and Pidge were already in the midst of battle. The energy shield was still blocking most of the damage to the Castle, but it was already beginning to flash and grow more transparent, signalling it was about to go down.

With Shiro steering their small spacecraft and Allura frantically trying to figure the situation out next to him, all Lance and Keith could do in the backseats was anxiously wait and listen.

"So it's the Galra attacking us?" the princess asked, a deep frown etched into her features.

 _"I think so,"_ Pidge replied uncertainly. _"I don't know who else it could be."_

Letting out a sharp sigh, Allura briefly worried her bottom lip. "Is the Blue Lion ready?" she asked, sweat beginning to bead on her forehead.

 _"Should be fine,"_ Hunk bit out, breathing heavily. _"If it's just this one fight, it should hold up."_

"Good, then Lance," Shiro said, turning in his seat to direct his stern gaze at the paladin in question, "you need to join the others in fighting off this attack. Prepare yourself." Without even waiting for a response, he turned back around and immediately began planning out their next move. "Hunk, we're about to be within eyesight of the enemy. Can you pick us up?"

 _"Just a sec!"_ Hunk gasped, his lion in the middle of dodging a barrage of lasers from several attackers. All of a sudden, he made a hard turn and raced towards their small, unarmed spacecraft. 

With the Yellow Lion much faster than most fighter jets, Hunk was able to make his way towards them before the enemy could even spot them. In one fell swoop, his lion took in their spacecraft, then quickly made its way back towards the Castle. On the way, Hunk had to frantically dodge attack after attack, one hitting his lion's chest and momentarily knocking him off course. It took some manoeuvring and struggling, but eventually they made it back to the Castle.

From there, it took mere minutes to get the remaining paladins battle-ready and in their lions. While Allura stayed in the Castle with Coran and aided him in keeping up the Castle's shield, the paladins and their lions finally headed out. The second they left the safety of the Castle, they were hit with energy beams and lasers, fighter jets zipping past, two large battle cruisers approaching and shooting from a distance. It was loud and chaotic, the colours of the many enemy ships almost blurring together into an indistinguishable mess. 

Finally reunited with his lion, Lance found some comfort in sitting in the Blue Lion's cockpit again. He had spent many a night seeking comfort in this very chair, listening to the silent hum of his lion, the purr of it existing all around him. And yet, despite feeling oh so safe and warm, he couldn't shake this uneasiness, this sense of constant dread and emptiness. Every ship that he was shooting down, every spacecraft that exploded, each one of those was possibly another life erased from existence. Any one of these ships could be piloted by either a living, breathing Galra or a drone. There was really no way of knowing. He thought he had come to terms with that; they were in a war after all. Still, the nagging, desperate voice in the back of his mind, the voice that had always been there since the beginning, it had now only grown louder.  

Lance was snapped out of his thoughts when he barely dodged a powerful beam attack. It had come from one of the battle cruisers, another attack already being prepared, judging by that distant gleaming light. Looking closer, Lance could see that the beam attack had easily wiped out an entire row of small fighter jets, nothing but debris left floating in its wake.

 _"We need to take out those cruisers,"_ Shiro suddenly barked, steering his lion to head-butt a small fighter jet away. _"As long as those are there, our movements are extremely limited."_

 _"But can we?"_ Hunk immediately questioned anxiously. _"Those things are pretty big. We'd have to all attack them at the same time to do enough damage."_

It was silent for a moment, the paladins mulling over their options in this situation. Shiro was right, but so was Hunk. Letting those larger ships continuously shoot at them from a distance meant risking being taken down at every second they were fighting. But engaging them also meant having to momentarily leave their backs open to other attacks.

 _"Let's form Voltron,"_ Keith suggested, voice low. _"We'll be faster, stronger and we'll offer them less chances of hitting us."_

The sigh that Shiro heaved was distorted. _"Yeah, that's probably our best bet."_ The sound of Shiro taking a deep breath was oddly electrifying, immediately causing everyone's focus to intensify. _"Okay, team, you know the drill. Form Voltron!"_

Immediately, the familiar sensation of their thoughts and motivations synchronising with each other filled up Lance's mind. He was becoming one with his lion, one with his teammates. He could feel his lion being drawn to the others, beginning to move on its own so it could merge with its fellow lions. But something felt off. Wrong. False. 

It was like a pinprick. A quick, small prick of doubt. At first, Lance paid it no mind, writing it off as something unimportant. Then the prick turned into something more painful, more demanding, before suddenly blooming and exploding. It assaulted his mind with an overwhelming sense of rejection and emptiness, strong enough he was sure the others could feel it. That thought only fuelled the fire even more, until finally, they broke.

Midway into forming Voltron, the paladins were violently torn apart and thrown into different directions. They were left with their minds reeling, struggling to come back to their senses as they haphazardly flew through space. 

_"Paladins!"_

The princess' voice finally seemed to pull them back, the lions beginning to move properly again. The fighting continued.

 _"We're fine,"_ Shiro reassured the princess. _"Forming Voltron is out of question,"_ he then continued, voice unusually quiet and flat. _"We'll take care of that later, but for now we still need to protect the Castle! Stay focused!"_

The paladins, with some hesitation, voiced their agreement. All, except for one.

The fighting continued. It was loud, chaotic and taxing. None of them knew the reason for the attack beyond the enemy being the usual Galra fleet. The fight felt endless, with reinforcements seemingly materialising out of thin air constantly. Hours seemed to go by as they dodged attack after attack, shot down ship after ship. 

All until finally, they were surrounded by nothing but a sea of debris.

* * *

The air was thick with tension. The paladins, safe for Shiro, stood with their heads lowered, expressions downcast or grim. Meanwhile, the princess was directing her stern gaze at the floor, her arms crossed, Coran fidgeting nervously next to her. Having only just left their lions in the hangar, the paladins looked tired and exhausted from a long fight; hair clinging to still damp skin, faces flushed with heat, breathing still a little laboured. The silence stretched on and on, no one quite sure how to dispel it.

Until Shiro cleared his throat. "I'm… glad we all made it back in one piece." He tensed up slightly when Allura lifted her gaze from the floor to look at him. "We had some issues, but in the end–"

"What happened?" Allura cut him off. She dragged a hand over her face, looking completely strung out. "The last time this happened, you all had only just become paladins a day earlier."   

Lance suddenly sucked in a breath, the expression on his face growing pained. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. "It's my fault that–"

"No, it wasn't just your fault, Lance," Shiro interrupted, placing a reassuring hand on Lance's back. "Keith, you were disrupting us too."

"What?" the paladin in question immediately shrieked. "Me?!"

Shiro shook his head slightly, walking up to Keith so he could confront him face to face. "That fear you mentioned earlier with the shaman? I felt it. We _all_ felt it." He said this while gripping at his chest plate, right where his heart was, a pained glint entering his eyes. "Whatever happened to you two in that forest carried over to you piloting your lions and you need to fix it. We can't form Voltron as long as you two are getting so overwhelmed by… whatever this is."

Keith had nothing to reply with, simply standing there speechless. Eventually, his gaze wandered to his right, where Lance stood. Their eyes met and they could both tell that something had changed between them. Something beyond their weird, mixed up feelings for each other. It was something much deeper, much more ingrained in their very fibres. It was as though something within them had been shaken up and was still not back in place.

"What do we do?" Keith asked, eyes still locked with Lance's.

Seeing the helpless look in the other's eyes, Lance shrugged. "I don't know."

Allura watched the exchange with narrowing eyes, fingers tapping her crossed arms. "Lance," she suddenly spoke up in a sharp tone.

Immediately, Lance knew something was wrong. Ever since coming back from Velanos, Allura had been off towards him. It seemed hard for her to genuinely smile at Lance and speak openly to him. It was disconcerting, to say the least. "Yeah?"

Silent as she carefully chose her words, Allura uncrossed her arms to fold her hands in front of her instead. "I will ask you again and I hope you can answer truthfully this time…" Eyes finally connecting with Lance's, she took a deep breath. "What exactly happened when you were in that prison? And what happened when you were with Cesar afterwards?" 

Lance could feel his entire body go cold, as though he was suddenly standing in some kind of stormy tundra, knee-deep in snow with the icy wind clawing at his face. He immediately broke eye contact, began fidgeting, barely stopping himself from backing away even just slightly. "I already told you–"

"We both know that's not true," she cut him off, stepping closer, making him cower slightly. "Either you're deliberately not remembering, or… you're lying."

"Allura!" Shiro, who had been silent for the most part, suddenly marched up to the pair, sending a particularly chiding glare at the princess. "You can't–"

"I can!" she barked. "And I need to!" Ignoring Shiro, she came even closer to Lance, so close, in fact, that Lance could somewhat see his own reflection in her clear blue eyes.

"With everything that we just learned about the Velonians and their ways, are you still going to keep secrets about them? Are you still going to let us walk into a trap?"

"It's not like that!" Finally, a spark of anger was flaring up in Lance. "If there was anything at all that could somehow endanger us by me not telling you, I wouldn't keep it a secret! You should know that!" 

Still frowning, Allura swiped a lock of hair out of her face. "Persia, from what we have seen, was a relatively peaceful city," she then said, tone biting. "But anywhere you went, people would somehow wind up dead. You do have to admit that it is worrying."

"You only saw the peak of the iceberg," Lance hissed, shoulders hunched and fists clenched. "That entire planet is rotten to its core. The things they do to their own people… I just happened to be in the wrong places at the wrong times."

Expression softening slightly, Allura seemed to grow a little less tense. "To a certain degree, I am aware of the horrible things they do." Almost immediately, the fire returned to her gaze. "It doesn't change the fact that now Voltron's name is being dragged through the mud because one of its paladins has been labelled a mass murderer that single-handedly caused havoc across an entire city. A peaceful one at that. Not to mention, kickstarted a full-blown civil war! Is that the kind of notoriety you set out to achieve? Were you really _that_ desperate for acknowledgement?"

"Princess!" Coran shouted, speaking up for the first time in a while and wrapping a hand around Allura's arm, gently pulling her away.

Allura and Lance seemed ready to go at each other, both tense and gazes dripping with poison.

Finally, Shiro stepped in between them, pushing back Lance in particular. "Both of you, stop!" 

Having both Coran and Shiro intervening, Allura seemed to realise her own hotheadedness. "I apologise, I'm… going to cool my head," she said, turning around and quickly leaving, shoulders drooping slightly. 

With Shiro's hand on him, the anger seeped out of Lance almost instantly, leaving him a shaky, upset mess. Being yelled at and mistrusted by Allura, someone he treasured so dearly, was like a stab in the chest. For a moment, he considered telling her everything, just so she would stop looking at him like that. But that would mean telling everybody. The thought of that terrified him more than anything, instilled a deeply rooted sense of dread in his mind. He wanted to tell her the truth. But he couldn't.

"Lance?" Shiro whispered, pushing Lance further aside, away from the rest but still within earshot. "Sure you don't want to talk? Talking about it might actually–"

Keith suddenly butted in and pushed himself in between Shiro and Lance, exasperation on his face. "Just let it go, Shiro. He's not keeping anything dangerous to himself."

There was a moment in which Shiro looked entirely confused, eyeing Keith and trying to find answers. Then, a realisation seemed to hit him. "Wait… you _know_ what he's keeping secret?"

"Roughly." Keith shrugged, quickly glancing at Lance, who looked both suspicious and relieved. "I promise it's nothing bad," he continued, tone pleading. "At least not for us or Voltron."

Keith's words coaxed a sigh out of Shiro, the paladin running a hand through his hair. "Keith, that makes it sound like Lance is holding on to a lot of… _hurt_. That can't be good. Some things need to be talked about to–"

"They really don't," Keith interrupted, eyes suddenly stern. "Sometimes it's better to just bury things and let them be forgotten. You of all people should know that."

That seemed to finally get through to Shiro, causing him to back away slightly, another sigh passing his lips. "Yeah, you're right. Sorry for pushing you, Lance."

Lance gulped, at first not trusting his voice fully. "Don't mind it." His eyes then fell on Hunk and Pidge, who had been sitting in their bridge chairs this entire time, watching the situation unfold silently. Both looked uncomfortable and scared, Hunk in particular shooting Lance a look dripping with concern. Lance made an effort to smile at him, just to soothe him even a little bit. Hunk returned the smile and his expression brightened up slightly, but the concern never left his eyes.

Clearly, Lance had some explaining to do. But not today.

* * *

Night came. Or at least, its artificial space equivalent did. Like so many nights before, Lance laid awake, staring into the darkness, wondering when the pit in his stomach would finally close up. If it would _ever_ close up. The darkness of his silent room created a false sense of infinity that seemed to suck him in, deeper and deeper, looming and suffocating. It quickly became unbearable, sending him flying out of bed even faster than usual. At this point, he was beginning to give up on the mere idea of peaceful sleep.

This time, he didn't even pretend to be taking a casual stroll around the Castle. He simply headed straight for the place he knew he would inevitably end up at anyway. On his way, he passed by Hunk's room and briefly entertained the thought of waking him up to have a chat, maybe pour his heart out to someone, finally, but then fear and doubt kicked in again and he instantly buried the thought.

As Lance approached his destination, his heart began racing, blue night gown fluttering around his knees. He didn't want to admit it, even to himself, but the hope of seeing one particular face this late at night drove him, urged him to keep going. It made him want to run, sprint so he could check as soon as possible. The halls of the Castle suddenly seemed endlessly long, every corner tedious, every dim light blinding.

And then he finally stepped into the kitchen and was greeted by the smell of Coran's mysterious brew. And Keith. Their eyes met and immediately Lance went still. He watched steam from a cup billow around Keith's face, those deep dark eyes widening slightly. The Red Paladin sat in his slim black shirt and grey sweatpants, somehow managing to pull the look off without looking sloppy. 

"Hi," Keith greeted him, taking a sip from his cup. He didn't break eye contact, seeming determined to watch Lance's every move. "You're awake."

Lance mumbled a quiet "Yeah", carefully stepping into the kitchen. He poured himself a cup, then cluelessly stood in the middle of the room for a moment, before sitting down in front of Keith. "You come to this place often?"

Keith's eyebrows almost disappeared into his fringe, before he failed to hide a widening smile behind his hand. "Sometimes, yeah. You?"

Barely suppressing a goofy smile himself, Lance shrugged. "I like the vibe," he replied, putting on a mock gravelly tone. "Space… feels lonely sometimes."

Keith ran a finger over his cup as if it was a glass of glistening bourbon. "Yeah…" he murmured, slowly picking up his cup. "Space is really big."

Eyes going wide, Lance spit out an entire mouthful of Coran's space coffee, hacking and coughing. He just barely turned around in time to not spit all over the table at least. "You ruined it!" he screeched, tears in his eyes as he wiped his sleeve over his mouth. "What the fuck was that?"

"I'm not good at this stuff, okay!" Keith yelled back weakly, barely holding in laughter. "Next time, try a better line than _You come here often?_ "

"Hey, don't knock the classics!" Laughter slowly subsiding, Lance settled back into his chair. Eventually, the smile melted away from his face and his expression grew more solemn. He sat like that for a while, not drinking from his cup, occasionally eyeing Keith. His eyes were glued to the Orak tattoos still peaking out of Keith's collar and trailing towards his jaw. The other seemed to notice him staring, but Lance didn't stop. "What did you mean, earlier… when you said you _roughly_ knew what I was keeping secret?"

Keith took a long sip from his cup, taking his time to answer. "It's hard to explain," he said, eyes trained on the surface of the table. "Obviously I don't know the details, but I just somehow… _know_ what happened. Or I feel like I do."

"So what _do_ you know?" Lance poked, hoping to get more out of Keith.

"Nothing solid." Shaking his head slightly, Keith seemed to mull things over. "I don't think I ever saw your memories or anything, but I still… It's almost like I experienced things you went through, but I don't actually remember them. It's like they're somewhere in my brain, but when I try looking at them closer, they just slip through my fingers." He set down his cup, crossed his arms on top of the table and leaned closer into Lance. "All I can say is that I get how you feel. I mean it." He seemed to notice the way Lance eyed him, his posture, and backed away again. "What about you?"

Lance shrugged, taking a small sip from his cup. "I said it when we were with the shaman. I just… feel really lonely looking at you. I can almost see you sitting in that desert, far away from the garrison. All by yourself."

Nodding silently, Keith emptied his cup and got up to pour himself another one. 

Looking at him, Lance could tell that Keith was tired. That he was _always_ tired. It was the first time that he could so clearly see the exhaustion constantly swimming in his eyes, weighing his entire body down like rocks hanging off his shoulders. It was the kind of exhaustion that wouldn't go away even with twelve hours of good sleep.

Keith set down the can and picked up his filled cup, but didn't turn around. "So… I know I'm not good at… you know… _expressing_ _myself_ , so…" He suddenly looked incredibly fragile, his posture uncertain. "And I'm bad at reading people. So correct me if I'm wrong, but you're attracted to me, right?"

The question caught Lance completely off guard, making him sputter and nearly spit out his drink again. When he didn't answer, Keith slowly turned around to look at him with an unreadable look in his eyes. Breath stuck in his throat, it took Lance a moment to regain his bearings. "I guess when you don't make me want to toss you out into space, you're kinda… okay to look at." Sometimes, Keith was quite easy to read; this was one of those moments. Lance could almost see him deflate like a sad puppy. "Yeah, okay, I'm attracted to you! Happy?"

Keith sat back down finally and clumsily tried hiding his reddening checks by coughing into his hand. "Uh… yeah." He stared off to the side, hand still covering half his face. "So… _obviously_ I don't hate you either. You're a uh…" Keith gulped, "pretty good-lookin' guy." He rubbed his eyes. "I might could see myself… um… I ain't–"

"Why do you sound Southern all of a sudden?" Lance interrupted, taking in the look of surprise on Keith's face. 

"What?" Keith froze for a moment, simply staring back at Lance, before he shook his head. "Oh uh… yeah, I… Sometimes it just slips out. It hasn't in a while, but… wouldn't be the first weird thing to happen recently." Keith watched Lance for a moment, a frown slowly stretching across his features. "Did you just derail me on purpose?

Lance tried to nonchalantly drink from his cup, fingers quietly tapping on the table. "Dunno what you're talking about."

Keith let out a frustrated sigh, pushing a hand through his already messy hair. "I'm trying to have a talk with you here."

"Yeah, well, maybe we shouldn't." Lance could see how angry Keith was getting. Knowing Keith and his short fuse, it wouldn't take much more for him to explode. He could see it in the red colour slowly rising into his cheeks, the deepening crease between his eyebrows. "Okay, hypothetically speaking… let's say we have feelings for each other." 

Immediately, Keith wanted to speak up. "Um…"

"Just listen," Lance insisted, waiting for the other to settle down again. "Let's assume we do. Say we start dating. How do you think that's gonna work? We're in _space_ , just in case you forgot. We're in the middle of a _war_. We won't be able to go on dates, we won't meet each other's friends or parents. One of us could _die_ tomorrow."

"I know all that," Keith mumbled, eyes dropping to the floor. "I know…" The next time he met Lance's eyes, so many different emotions were swirling in his dark eyes, it was hard to identify them all. "But that's not the real reason you're so against this, is it?"

A short, dry laugh left Lance. "Oh, all-knowing Keith, then do pray tell, what _is_ the reason I'm so against whatever _this_ is?"

"Probably what that forest guardian showed us," Keith immediately replied, eyebrows set in a frown. "You're afraid and I'm… you know. You're scared of what might happen and I'm… I…"

"What are you talking about?" 

Keith eyed Lance for a while, how exasperated he looked, how tired and frustrated. The Orak tattoos were beginning to fade already, melting into Lance's skin more and more with each day. "Well… it makes sense, doesn't it? That trial was some kind of test of our bond and we came out like… _this_. With these weird fragments of each other in our minds."

A realisation seemed to finally hit Lance, making him almost jump out of his chair. "Wait… does that mean the trial isn't over yet?" he half shouted, remembering that it was technically the middle of the night. "But they gave us the okay and everything!"

Speechless and stunned for a second, Keith eventually shrugged. "Could be, yeah."

A million things were rushing through Lance's mind now. He remembered the shaman, her cryptic way of speaking, wondered if perhaps she had dropped any hints, anything useful. But nothing came to mind. If only he could remember what had happened in the forest. If only he could recall encountering the guardian… "I need to go," he murmured, abruptly standing up and making to leave.

"Lance, wait!" 

He had barely gotten a few steps away before Keith caught up to Lance. Keith reached out for him, but his hand stopped midway and he instead ran in front of Lance to block him that way.

"Just look me in the eyes and tell me you don't have any feelings for me." Keith looked like he so desperately wanted to grab Lance by the arms, hold on to him _somehow_ , just to get his point across better. "Just tell me and I'll leave you alone forever. We'll go back to being teammates and there's not gonna be any of this weirdness between us."

"Can you really promise that?" 

Hurt immediately entered Keith's eyes, his expression falling. "Yeah."

Nodding, Lance opened his mouth to say the words, seal the deal and be done with it forever. He was already picturing the pained look on Keith's face, the awkward silences that would follow, the more severe disturbances to their teamwork, potentially ruining any chances of forming Voltron any time soon. He was so prepared for all of it.

Yet he couldn't get the words out. They stayed trapped in his mind, never making it anywhere near his lips.

Shaking his head, Lance watched as Keith's face slowly broke out into a hesitant smile. "I don't get what you like about me so much."

Unable to hide the smile now, Keith chuckled. "Yeah, I don't get it either."

Immediately, Lance's expressions soured. "You do realise this is the part where you're supposed to list off all these cute little things you like about me, right?"

"Like what?" Keith replied, cluelessness written all over his face.

"Dunno." Lance shrugged, suddenly noticing how close Keith had gotten, almost close enough that if he were to lean in… "My dashingly handsome looks?"

"Yeah, that's definitely not it." Despite his obvious teasing, Keith smiled, leaning into Lance further, close enough that they could both smell the faint aroma of Coran's space coffee on each other. "I don't have a list of things I like about you. I just like you, okay? You'll have to be satisfied with that."

"But I'm not."

Disbelief and exasperation spreading on Keith's face, he seemed ready to throw in the towel, looking the part of a fed up preschool teacher. "Oh my god, what do you want?!"

"I get to call you my _mullet prince_."

Pure, undiluted horror immediately spread all over Keith's face. Jaw dropped, frown seeming carved into his features, he looked just about ready to open up a hole in the Castle's hull so he could dive out into open space and disappear forever. "Bye."

"Keith, wait!" Suppressing laughter, Lance could only watch as Keith power-walked away with almost visible steam shooting out of his ears.

"Good night!" Keith barked, before turning a corner and disappearing.

That left Lance by himself, listening to the fading sound of Keith's footfalls until, finally, there was silence. The smile that had been on his face slowly faded. And so he stood in the middle of the dimly lit corridor, wondering what exactly all this meant for him. 

* * *

Team Voltron touched down in Persia after a trip filled with the kind of tension that was almost palpable. It had taken some convincing, but it had been decided that Allura, Coran and Hunk would stay at the Castle, despite the princess' wish to accompany the paladins on this semi-diplomatic trip. Seeing how the Galra threat was still looming, Hunk was on standby in his lion, simply flying around near the Castle, still in orbit. Meanwhile, Pidge circled over Persia, cloaked and invisible to the naked eye, ready to jump in from the sky should anything happen. Since the rebels already knew their faces, the ones currently stepping out of their lions were Shiro, Keith and Lance. All three shot each other uncertain looks when they were immediately greeted by an even larger group of Velonian rebels than the last time they had visited.

One of the rebels nodded at them in greeting, eyes carefully trailing over each paladin. "Good day," he said, slinging his enormous rifle over his shoulder. "You here to see Vera?"

Shiro didn't answer right away, still carefully observing their surroundings, mindful of the many eyes watching their every movement. "Yes, we are."

In response, the rebel nodded silently and jerked his chin towards a parked vehicle. "You know the drill." 

Shiro simply nodded and signalled the other two to follow as he made his way towards the buggy-like vehicle. Like last time, the ride to the city hall only served to showcase the sheer destruction of the once shimmering capital. Only now, the streets were empty. The few Velonians they caught sight of simply sat, motionless. There was a suffocating atmosphere of defeat, of hopelessness. It was becoming increasingly harder to remember this city as anything but a war zone.

Lance gulped when the vehicle finally stopped and their driver stepped out, signalling that they had arrived at their destination. He followed Shiro's example and exited as well, unconsciously drifting to where Keith stood with a frown, carefully watching what the rebels were doing. 

"Stay on guard," Shiro whispered to them, following their guide as he went ahead into the still relatively intact building. 

Keith and Lance simply nodded, walking close behind their leader. 

They soon entered to find things somewhat more organised than before, the rebels seemingly having settled into their respective workstations. A routine and system had been established. Some Velonians shot them odd looks, but didn't pay them much mind otherwise. Everyone seemed busy with their own tasks, too occupied to care much about anything else. 

"Why are they looking at us like that?" Keith murmured, barely loud enough for Shiro and Lance to hear.

Seeing Shiro shake his head slightly, a puzzled expression on his face, Lance sighed. "It's probably cause of me." He tensed up slightly when the other two turned towards him, shooting Lance equally questioning looks. "They still think I'm an omega."

Expression indecipherable, Keith's eyes lingered on Lance's for a moment, before he turned away. "Wonder what I am."

"Well, let's see…" Poorly masking a smirk, Lance began listing off things on his fingers, "you're hot-headed, angry and have zero self control. Sounds like an alpha to me."

"Hey!"

"Cut it out, you two," Shiro immediately chided, looking the part of a disgruntled, single dad. "Remember why we're here."

Reluctantly, the two mumbled curt apologies, sneaking glares at each other. Their guide then finally stopped in front of the familiar conference room and simply waved them in. He gave them a mock salute, before quickly walking away again. 

"So far so good," Shiro mumbled, taking the lead and stepping into the room first, Keith and Lance following close behind. 

None of them expected to be faced immediately by Vera, who turned away from a rebel working at a large monitor to look at them. 

"Perfect timing," she said, smirking at them. "I was about to declare your mission a failure."

"Well, we succeeded." With his hands folded behind his back, Shiro exuded authority and strength, despite being a few heads shorter than the Velonian. "The Orak have agreed to stop attacking. They will no longer engage you in combat."

Nodding to herself, Vera's smirk widened. "That's great news." 

"Does that mean you'll lay down your weapons now?" Shiro immediately prodded.

Vera stared at him for a moment, gaze cold and calculating. "I guess we will. Wouldn't want to make an enemy out of Voltron, would we?" 

Her tone was oddly biting, but whether it was simply Vera being Vera or something else, Lance couldn't quite decide. He watched her, the way she held herself, her overall calm demeanour. "You're doing pretty okay, considering you're in the middle of a civil war. Aren't the betas giving you any trouble?"

"Oh, they tried," Vera immediately replied, tone dismissive. "They didn't get far."

A shudder ran down Lance's spine. There were so many possible implications to her words, so many scenarios playing out in his mind. He so desperately wanted to ask her what was happening, how betas were being treated, if they were even still alive. But if Shiro wasn't going to ask, he wouldn't either. 

Suddenly, the muffled sound of an explosion shook the walls, a shock wave running through the entire building. It almost knocked Lance off his feet, terror immediately entering his eyes. 

"What was that?" Keith yelled before Shiro had a chance to ask.

Vera's expression was pinched, eyes lowering to the floor. "The Galra."

Instantly, Lance's stomach dropped. The Orak's story of betrayal and deception suddenly came back to him. Allura's suspicions, Shiro's careful doubts, all of a sudden, it was all there, right in front of him. "What?"

Vera didn't answer. Something like regret shone in her ever annoyed looking eyes, her shoulders hunching slightly.

"Why?" Lance asked again, weakly drifting closer to the Velonian. "Why did you–!"

"The choice was between you and our own people!" Vera suddenly yelled, stopping Lance in his tracks. "They're shooting at this city _right now_ and they won't stop until Voltron is captured."

"But–"

"Run." An intense fire suddenly burned in Vera's eyes. "We repay our debts. Now _run_!" 

Another explosion shook the building, this time much closer, the walls creaking, the ceiling shaking.

"You really should listen to her."

At first unable to identify the voice, it took Lance a moment to recognise the newcomer. A tall and broad Velonian stepped out of a side room and calmly walked up to the paladins, stopping next to Vera.

"Baki?" Lance mumbled, in shock. "Why are you here?"

Before Baki ever had a chance to speak up, Vera answered. "He's our leader. Always has been." She seemed keen on not giving Baki a chance to talk his way out of this, aware of the tales he could spin if given a chance.

"You…" It took a moment, but soon Lance was connecting the dots. "You were leading the rebellion this entire time? So me bringing you guys together was all just a–"

"There's no time to explain," Baki interrupted. " _Leave!_ "

Again, an explosion rocked the building, this time hitting it directly, causing pieces of the ceiling to fall down. And yet, the Velonians seemed unperturbed, continuing to work furiously at their stations. 

"What about you?" Shiro questioned, eyes wandering over the many Velonians gathered in the room. "This building might come down any second."

"We'll be fine," Vera insisted. "Now go!" 

Lance was about to ask more, when Keith suddenly stopped him by grabbing him and dragging him along with him as he dashed for the exit, closely following Shiro.

"We need to hurry!"

"No, Keith, let go! I–"

Keith only tightened his hold and ran faster, forcing Lance to the same. "Lance, we have to get to our lions!"

"I know! But–"

"No buts! We're getting out of here, away from this rotten fucking planet!" 

"They just saved us!"

"They tricked us, shithead!" Keith immediately retorted, turning around to send a frustrated glare at the other. "They lured us here and pretended everything was fine so the Galra could come and pick us off while we're out of our lions! Just because they decided to warn us doesn't mean they didn't betray us!"

"You–!" 

"Guys!" Shiro cut in before Lance could go off on Keith and only deepen their argument. "Focus! Our signal's jammed again and I can't reach the Castle or Pidge and Hunk, so we're on our own! You can't argue like this right now!" He paused for a second to take a breath and wiped a bead of sweat from his jaw. "And look."

Keith and Lance glowered at each other for a moment longer, before averting their gazes to look at what Shiro was pointing at. Immediately, their eyes fell on a strange pair of Velonians standing outside of the entrance of the city hall building, slightly hidden behind a pillar. Despite looking so suspicious, strangely, the taller one was furiously waving at them, signalling for them to come to him. 

The three paladins briefly exchanged looks, then Shiro nodded and they headed for the pair. On their way there, Lance finally got a better look at the smaller Velonian of the pair and immediately his eyes lit up.

Both Keith and Shiro warily watched, confused, as a small Velonian ran up to Lance and practically jumped him. 

"Lance!" she screamed, embracing him and pressing her face into his chest.

A smile on his face, Lance returned the hug and petted the small girl's head. "Sona! You're alright." He wanted to ask the girl so much, how she had been, what she was doing, if she was safe. But then another explosion sounded and his eyes shot to the other, taller Velonian. "You're Sano, right? Minister of Justice?"

Sano nodded, nervously glancing towards the city, where smoke was already beginning to rise into the sky. "We've met," he said, nodding at both Keith and Shiro. "The Galra are going to start capturing your lions soon."

"What?" Shiro's tone was sharp, a certain anxious edge to his words. "But what about Pidge and Hunk? What about the Green and Yellow Lion?"

Sano shrugged and shook his head, eyes apologetic. "I don't know. They might still be in combat. All I know is that the Galra are already on the move and ready to take the lions."

Arms crossed, Keith still looked ready to jump the guy should he even consider attacking them. "Why are you telling us all this?" 

"I'll bring you to them," Sano replied flatly, returning Keith's glare with a calm gaze. "Even if the Galra capture the lions, I can help you get them back." The look in his eyes was strangely determined, so intense it almost radiated from his entire body. But then his eyes turned to Lance and the look in his eyes grew much more mellow and fond. "As a thank you for bringing my little sister back."

It finally clicked for Lance and almost immediately, a grin spread on his face. "Just doing my job, saviour of the universe and all."

Both Keith and Shiro smirked, looking happy to hear Lance's cringeworthy bragging again after so long.

"We need to hurry," Sano then said, wrapping an arm around Sona's shoulders and rushing away with her, prompting the paladins to follow.

"Where are we going?" Lance shouted, before nearly tripping over his own feet.

Sano looked over his shoulder at Lance, a smirk suddenly widening on his features. "Underground."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No art for this chapter, unfortunately. I was pretty unhappy with the quality I was putting out and it wasn't fun working on the art I did. I'm working on some Voltron fanart unrelated to this fic now and I'm actually having fun with this one. I'll post a link to it when it's done, since I'm also about to move my art blog to an old one that I sort of abandoned. 
> 
> As always, the next chapter should be up in two weeks. If it's not up on Friday, it'll probably be up within the next day.


	13. Impairment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for some non-con and torture stuff in this chapter. Not sure if I should point it out within the chapter again. I figure if you've made it this far, you don't mind this stuff.

"We should be there after this tunnel."

Lance watched as Sano, along with his sister, disappeared into the inky darkness of a tunnel entrance. So far, everything had been wide, open and surprisingly well lit, especially considering they were underground. But now the clammy walls were much closer, the path narrower. Apparently, Persia had an entire underground network of sewers, canals and pathways, enough to be able to sneakily make even enormous battle lions disappear. There was no telling where their lions would be taken, so the only way to reliably intercept them before they were stolen was to get to the hangar underneath the place they had originally landed. That was where the Blue Lion had gotten stolen and transported from the first time around; at least according to Sano.

Looking into the tunnel entrance, already Lance could tell this wouldn't work out. "Um…"

Everyone stopped to look back at him, coming to a stop just in front of the tunnel entrance.

"Is something wrong?" Shiro asked, concern already glistening in his eyes.

Biting his lip, Lance couldn't quite find the words to describe his predicament. "I–"

"He's fine," Keith suddenly cut in, giving Lance a _look_. "Go ahead, Shiro. We're right behind you." 

Lance gulped when Keith suddenly turned on the spot and walked towards him. "What?"

"You can't see in there, can you?" Keith said this so calmly, so nonchalantly, as though a paladin not being able to see in the dark was no big deal. "Here, take my hand."

Staring owlishly at the outstretched hand, Lance couldn't quite stop himself from letting his composure slip completely. "Wha– No, I-I won't–"

"Just…" Letting out a loud, frustrated sigh, Keith simply went ahead and grabbed Lance's hand, despite the other still being in the middle of stuttering something. 

Lance would have pulled his hand out of the other's grasp, had Keith not interlaced their fingers, the heat constantly coming off of his body palpable even through his gloved hand. Immediately, Lance could feel his entire head go hot, ears burning and face feeling like it could melt off. "Keith! You–"

"Shut up! We don't have time for this!"

As he was being forcefully pulled along into the darkness of that small tunnel, Lance wasn't sure if the heat shooting through his veins was anger or something else. He could only watch as Keith's silhouette began blending into the darkness, fading, colours dissipating, until finally, he was surrounded by absolute black. All of a sudden, Lance's heart sank when he realised that he was completely reliant on Keith now. One wrong step, one mistake and it could cost them precious time. Time they needed to recover their lions. 

The sound of his own steps echoed, ricocheting off the tunnel walls, bouncing around in Lance's head. The symphony of other steps was disorienting, the fact that Keith was walking in front of him the only certain thing. Everyone else seemed so incredibly far away. Even as he was holding Keith's hand, even while having a physical connection to someone else, Lance still had a hard time truly making sense of anything. They might as well have been walking upside down and he wouldn't have been able to tell.

Then, finally, a literal light at the end of the tunnel. It was blinding at first, the darkness surrounding Lance still murky and thick like dirty lake water. He shielded his eyes with his free hand, letting Keith pull him further and further towards the light. 

Suddenly, Lance was surrounded by light, drowning in it. It took a few seconds before he could make out shapes, then finally colours; the mess of explosions, debris and chaos. Finally, it registered in Lance's mind that they were standing in the middle of a battle. Galra soldiers were shooting up at an opening in the ceiling, flashes of colour flitting around outside. It was still hard for Lance to see clearly.

_"–et o–t… the–!"_

"What?" The crackling in his earpiece made Lance flinch, hand shooting up to his ear. "Pidge? Hunk? That you?"

_"–de… Ga–… –ons!"_

"It's no use," Keith shouted over the noise, a hand over his ear to block out some of the noise. "Our signal's still jammed. Pidge and Hunk are probably fighting outside and trying to stop the Galra."

"Get to your lions!" Shiro yelled from somewhere.

Keith briefly looked back, eyes jumping to his hand interlocked with Lance's, before he slowly let go. "Don't die!"

Before Lance could spit his witty comeback at him, Keith was already running to where his lion was being pulled into a Galra cargo ship. Lance briefly glanced at his hand, which suddenly felt oddly cold, before turning on the spot to find Sano and his sister already retreating. "Hey!" he yelled, catching not only their attention, but also that of several Galra soldiers. "Stay safe!" They simply waved at him, lingering for a moment, before running away. Luckily, the Galra didn't seem too concerned with the two Velonians, instead rushing at Lance immediately. "Whoops," he mumbled, already dashing to where his lion was already halfway inside one of those cargo ships.

Lance simply bulldozed through a somewhat spindly Galra soldier, before dodging the shots of a much larger, bulkier one to his right. Bayard transforming into a rifle in his hand, he focused on running and dodging instead of attacking, eyes set on his lion. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see a sniper up on a platform aiming at him, but by the time he noticed it was already too late. Lance only managed to move far enough to the side that the shot missed his head and instead hit his shoulder. It blasted off a small chunk of his armour, but luckily didn't fully penetrate it.

_"Ca–ul!…–al–…–llu–…!"_

Lance could vaguely make out Hunk's voice, but couldn't focus enough to understand any of the words. He was so close to his lion, he could already see the glow in its eyes staring back at him. Barely sidestepping another tank of a soldier, he shot down two more, briefly glancing to his side. Keith was already climbing into his lion, Shiro not far off. "So close," Lance murmured, before tripping over an abandoned rifle on the floor. 

Too late Lance noticed his mistake. One of the Galra soldiers used his tripping as an opportunity to close in within a split second, gun aiming for his head. Instinctively, Lance knew that backing out would only result in a clean shot at his face, and so he instead ran at the soldier, closing the distance completely. He heard the gun shot just as he reached for the arm holding the gun, directing it elsewhere and then disarming the soldier just in time. He could see the haunting glowing violet of his enemy's eyes as he clumsily kicked out his feet beneath him, almost going down along with the Galra before catching himself. The thought of finishing him off flashed through his mind, but instead Lance ran. 

"Gotta get to my lion," he whispered to himself, as though trying to motivate himself. A victorious grin spread on his face once he stepped onto the ramp of the cargo ship, eyes set on the prize. A shot from inside the ship hit his arm, almost smacking his bayard out of his hand. He ran faster, trying his hardest to evade the barrage of shots directed at him from inside. A few grazed or hit him, causing him to wince and clench his teeth each time. 

Finally, he made it close enough that he could spot his enemies and aim at them, wasting no time shooting them down one by one. By the time the first wave of soldiers was down, Lance was already gasping for breath, legs shaking and fingers beginning to hurt. He hadn't noticed how hard he was gripping his bayard. 

Looking at his lion eased Lance's mind somewhat, allowing him to have a moment of peace, even if just for a second. "Hey there, girl," he greeted his lion, hand running over its newly repaired leg. "Let's get outta here." He could see another group of soldiers approaching from inside the cargo ship, but he was already climbing into his lion when they got to him. The shaking of his legs subsided once he was sitting in his pilot's chair.

_"–iro!"_

Lance immediately panicked when he heard Keith's panicked tone. "Keith, what's going on?!"

_"Th–… tr–…de–ce…! Shi–!"_

Once he spotted the Black Lion, Lance understood Keith's distress. Shiro's lion was caught in some kind of purple light, unable to move, much less lift off the ground. The ceiling above them was beginning to close up, the Yellow and Green lion stuck outside fighting off even more Galra there. Keith, already so close to escaping, was hesitating, about to come back to save Shiro. 

"It's that Orak device!" Lance yelled, recognising parts of the device projecting out that purple light. "I know how it works!"

_"L–nce, wha–… you–?"_

Before Shiro could voice any protest, the Blue Lion was dashing towards him. It closed in further and further, picking up speed, until finally it crashed into the Black Lion and knocked it out of the purple light. 

_"Lance!"_

Only now, the Blue Lion was caught in the device. 

"Don't worry!" Lance shouted, picturing the worried frown Shiro was probably wearing on his face at the moment. "I know a way out! You and Keith go ahead! I'll be right behind you!" 

The Black Lion was still for a moment, gleaming blue eyes staring back at Lance, before finally taking off towards the ceiling. On its way, it quite literally bumped into the Red Lion, forcing it to go along as well.

_"No, Shi…! He–…ing!"_

Lance smiled hearing the familiar sound of Keith's angry yelling. He could hear some kind of unintelligible response and wasn't sure whether it was Hunk or Shiro speaking. With every inch that they got further away from each other, their connection only worsened. That they were able to even hear each other at all was a small miracle. 

Caught in the very Orak trapping device that had kicked off this entire ordeal in the first place, Lance watched as slowly, more and more Galra soldiers surrounded him, all aiming their guns at him. Sighing, he slumped together slightly in his chair, a nervous smile stretching on his lips. "So much for my epic tale of heroism and romance."

* * *

The last of the Galra fighters finally fell to the ground, reduced to a mess of smoking and sparking debris. At last, the Voltron lions descended back onto flat ground after having fought an entire battle in mid-air. Once a common landing spot for air crafts coming to Persia, this place was now a ship graveyard, countless Galran ships lying broken and in pieces. Thick smoke rose from the broken spacecrafts, obscuring the view of their immediate surroundings, including the jungle surrounding them. Voltron had won the battle and yet, the paladins were in disarray.

"He's not coming back." Keith's every word was laced with fury, fingers clenching around the control sticks of his lion, the material of his gloves straining and creaking.

 _"Calm down, Keith,"_ Shiro immediately tried soothing him. _"He might still show–"_

"Don't you get it?" Keith hissed. "He was bluffing! He lied so he could play the hero!" He could hear Shiro sighing, the sound slightly distorted through their still somewhat jammed connection.

 _"Pidge,"_ he said, _"do you think you can track down Lance?"_

Pidge hesitated for a moment, nervously humming in thought. _"Uh… I should be able to. Just gotta…"_ Trailing off mid-sentence, Pidge already seemed engrossed in typing and modifying things in the Green Lion.

Keith's fingers around the sticks were beginning to hurt. "How long?"

 _"Keith, just give it some time."_ Shiro's voice was pointedly calm, yet oozed authority.

Finally letting go of his sticks, Keith slammed his fist into his control panels. "We don't _have_ time!" he barked back. " _Lance_ doesn't have time!" When no one answered, everyone seeming completely lost, something in Keith burst open. He was about to yell again, let his rage flow through his entire body and burn its way through every single fibre of his being, when Shiro cut him off.

 _"Let's get out of our lions for a second,"_ he said, still as calm and collected as always. Before Keith could start ranting, he interrupted him again. _"Keith, please!"_

Breathing was painful, the air flowing in feeling like it was searing his throat and lungs. "Fine," Keith bit out, shakily jumping out of his pilot chair. 

Keith was the first to arrive outside his lion, feet quickly carrying him to the middle point between all the lions. Immediately, he began impatiently tapping his foot, arms crossed and the scowl on his face only deepening. Soon after, Shiro arrived and hastily jogged towards him. Keith didn't even give him a chance to come to a stop, immediately marching towards him with fire in his eyes. Meanwhile, Hunk and Pidge were exiting their lions as well, glancing at each other helplessly, before watching what was unfolding in front of them.

"Shiro, why did you let him go like that?" Keith spat, looking read to grab the other. "Why did you stop me from going back to him?! I _told_ you he was lying!"

"I couldn't hear you," Shiro admitted, tone meek. "And he sounded like he had a plan! I didn't know he was–"

"He's been fucking lying through his teeth since the second he woke up in that cryo-pod! How can you trust anything he says!"

"Keith…"

When Shiro tried reaching out for him, Keith slapped his hand away. "No, I don't care! I'm going back!" 

"Wait, you can't!" Shiro grabbed Keith by the arm, pulling him back as he tried to rush towards his lion again. "We don't know where–" 

"Then I'll search!" The rage coursing through Keith at that moment was almost dizzying, rushing up into his skull and nearly crushing it under its weight. "I'm not stopping till I find him! I'll burn this entire fucking city to the ground if I have to! I'm not letting this happen again, not this time!"

"Keith, stop!" With Keith struggling to break free, Shiro had to grab his other arm as well, desperate to somehow keep him in check.

Something in Keith finally snapped. He couldn't understand why Shiro wasn't as desperate as him to find Lance, why both Hunk and Pidge were looking at him like that instead of doing their best to find their lost comrade. Why was Keith the only one upset? "Let go!" As soon as he broke away from Shiro's grasp, Keith had the impulse to hurt him, to break him, make him pay for letting Lance go. Before it even registered fully in his mind, his fist was racing towards Shiro's face.  

"Keith!" Hunk suddenly shouted, his voice sounding oddly muted and distant.

Keith's fist connected, the sound of his hand hitting flesh nauseating, chest burning. Almost immediately, regret washed over him and all strength left his body. Anxious, he raised his head to take in the damage he had done… only to find his fist inside Shiro's hand. He quickly pulled it back, only to grip at his aching chest instead. At last, he noticed the shortness of his own breath. _I'm hyperventilating?_ , he thought, immediately forcing himself to take in deeper, much slower breaths. 

"Why are you like this?" Shiro then asked, unbridled concern swimming in his dark eyes, expression looking pained. "I've never seen you–"

Flashes of dark, grinning grimaces and bloodied claws appeared before Keith's eyes, almost robbing him of his breath completely. "If you knew even one thing that happened to him in this place… you'd want to erase this entire damn planet from this star system too."

"The Galra have him, Keith," Hunk finally spoke up, looking scared to approach any closer. "The Velonians _helped_ us."

A curt dry laugh escaped Keith at the words. "Oh yeah, they tricked us into coming here to stab us in the back and lead us into an ambush that damn near killed us, _big whoop_. Definitely in my top ten list of favourite allies. At least they didn't torture any of us! Oh no, wait! _They fucking did that_!" 

Hunk seemed to forget his own weariness and finally approached, coming to a stop inches away from Keith, towering over his smaller frame. "You're acting like you're the only one that's worried." Voice unusually low, a frown began forming on his face. "Do you have any idea how hard it is for us to stay calm right now? I wanna go off after him as much as you do–"

"Then why aren't you?!" Keith cut in, eyes wild.

"Cause that won't help him!" Hunk yelled, voice cracking slightly, every word laced with emotion. "We need time to figure out how to best get him back! Otherwise you're just putting him at risk even more! You–"  

"All this planning isn't gonna help him either once he's _dead_!" Keith watched as the colour visibly drained out Hunk's face, his broad frame deflating, shoulders sagging. Immediately, regret washed over him like a tidal wave. 

The tense silence that suddenly settled over them was agonising. No one seemed able to dispel it, Keith's words still hanging in the air, echoing in everyone's ears.

"I'll go track him," Pidge then broke the silence, hastily but quietly retreating to the Green Lion.

Keith hung his head, unable to even look anyone in the eyes. "Sorry." He could tell Hunk lingered for a moment, most likely trying and failing to crack a smile, before leaving as well. It took a moment, but eventually Keith lifted his head and found Shiro still in front of him, arms crossed and expression grave.

"We'll talk about this later," he said, uncrossing his arms and making to leave. "For now, let's get Lance back."

Nodding silently, Keith turned and quickly jogged towards his lion. A million thoughts ran through his head as he climbed back inside, the tumultuous whirlwind of emotions that was assaulting him dizzying. Sitting in his pilot chair was somewhat soothing; the presence of his lion was comforting, its energy seeming to flow into his mind in an effort to calm him. "Thanks, Red," he murmured, watching as Pidge jumped out onto the Green Lion's back to tinker around with something there. He could vaguely hear Pidge and Hunk discussing something, but their words completely flew over his head, never quite making it into his consciousness. Even Shiro occasionally chiming in didn't register. 

Keith was caught in a daze, the image of Lance trapped somewhere, alone, haunting him. Nothing else mattered, nothing else made any sense. He could almost _feel_ it, feel Lance's distress and fear. It made his heart pump harder, almost painfully so. He could feel his hands around his control sticks grow cold and clammy. Keith just _knew_ Lance was in trouble. If he closed his eyes, he could almost _see_ him, could almost hear him gasping for air as he desperately reached for help, only to find no one at his side. 

Nothing else mattered.  

"Hey, guys…" Keith eventually spoke up cautiously, tone unusually wary. "Do you see that big black smoke cloud back there? You think Lance might be there?"

"What?" Shiro immediately asked, voice sounding concerned already. His lion turned to where the Red Lion was facing, the other two doing the same.

There was nothing there. The sky was clear, stretching out above in a deep turquoise, with no sign of even any clouds. On the other hand, the jungle surrounding them was entirely obscured by smoke, the loud crackling of still burning spacecrafts swallowing up any noise.

"I don't see anything," Pidge noted, confused. 

"What smoke cloud?" Hunk then questioned, the Yellow Lion's head twisting from side to side, searching the area but finding nothing but debris and the vague outlines of trees within the fiery smoke around him. "Keith, wha– Keith?"

"Uh…" Immediately, Pidge seemed concerned.

"Where is he?" Shiro's voice sounded oddly sharp.

"He was right behind me," Hunk mumbled, voice going quieter and quieter, before he let out a nervous laugh. "He didn't just… run off into the jungle to go search for Lance on his own, did he?"

Silence.

"Did he really just do that?" Pigde asked incredulously. 

"He really just did that," came Shiro's deadpan response. 

"And with the dumbest trick in the universe too." Pidge sighed at the realisation, audibly face-palming. "His tracker is off too."

Clueless as to what to do, the three remaining paladins silently stood amidst the destruction and the debris. Aimlessly going after Keith meant risking getting themselves into yet another battle, something they weren't ready for yet, having just come out of such a long-winded one. But they couldn't very well just leave him to his own devices either. Truly, they were at their wit's end. 

* * *

Keith could hear branches breaking apart as his lion dashed right through them, tearing apart the jungle as though it were made entirely of cardboard. His thoughts were set on a rail, his only way forward. He didn't know where he was steering his lion; his only guide was the vague sense that he was approaching the Blue Lion. Or Lance. They blended together oddly, not quite distinguished from each other, but not fully merged either. It was Keith's only guide. He sighed in relief when even after ten minutes, there was no sign of Shiro and the others following him. Deciding to stay on ground for a while longer, Keith continued his mad dash through the jungle. Sweat beading on his forehead, he kept running and running, his lion humming and shaking, his fingers around the controls going slightly stiff after a while. He could very well be running through the jungle in circles, never reaching wherever Lance was. Whatever sense he was following could be completely off. After all, he had spent almost a year chasing the Blue Lion without ever finding it. He had felt it, _known_ it was somewhere out there, and yet it had taken Hunk's craftiness to actually find it.

Suddenly, Keith could see the end of the jungle, trees thinning out and the ground changing. The Red Lion slowly came to a stop, giving Keith the chance to check his surroundings more closely. Using the lion's cameras, he searched the area, zooming in on what was beyond the jungle. "Jackpot," he murmured when he found a relatively dilapidated little place in Persia. Apparently he had circled around the city and arrived somewhere far away from where the Galra had attacked. Hopefully, that also meant he was closing in on Lance. Eyeing the area further, he noticed the Velonians and how worn out they looked. Even from this distance, he could tell how battered and dirty their clothes were; holey or with sleeves missing. Looking down at himself and his pristine paladin armour, he frowned. "I'll get noticed right away." Begrudgingly, he began taking off his armour and changing into his regular clothes. And immediately, he knew that with his small stature and red jacket, he would still stand out. "Guess I'll find a disguise." 

The jungle was relatively close to the edge of the city, allowing Keith to sneakily leave his well hidden lion and find a way inside without being noticed. He hunched down in the corner of an abandoned, ruined house, pressing himself against a wall. Keith waited and watched Velonians go by, staying far enough in the darkness that no one noticed him. Velonians were walking up and down the streets, chatting, going about their day. Looking closer, Keith realised that he was in a slum of some sort. The houses had been run down and shitty to begin with, so a civil war breaking out didn't seem to bother these Velonians much. They simply went back to their usual daily life, rebuilding and fixing what they could.

Eventually, Keith could see a lone Velonian walking down the otherwise empty street, no one else in sight. Readying his knife, he waited for him to pass him, then reached through a large hole in the wall to pull the Velonian in. He didn't give him a chance to scream or even gasp, immediately slamming the hilt of his knife into the back of the Velonian's head. Unconscious, he fell to the floor with a thud and kicked up an enormous cloud of dust and dirt. Keith wasted no time taking off the Velonian's black jacket and thick, dark red scarf and putting them on himself. They were slightly too big on him, but would have to do. At least, it helped in keeping his small human stature hidden. 

The sun was beginning to go down, meaning the temperature would drop by a lot soon. Keith wrapped the scarf tightly around the lower half of his face, pulling the hood of his jacket as far into his face as possible, then finally left the house ruins. He looked back at the still unconscious Velonian for a second, before leaving for good. His heart began racing when Velonians came his way, appearing out of side streets and entrances, but no one seemed to care or even spare a glance at him, which eased his mind slightly. 

For a while, he simply walked towards where he thought he could sense the Blue Lion. But once he had wandered endlessly through winding streets and eventually passed by the same cranky old Velonian lady hunched in a house entrance for probably the sixth time, he came to the realisation that it would get him nowhere. All he knew for sure was that Lance was somewhere in Persia, meaning the Galra were probably still trying to somehow sneak his lion off the planet without the other paladins noticing. 

With the sun finally setting and his feet beginning to hurt from walking for so long, Keith found himself drawn to a tavern of sorts. He could see warm light streaming out from inside, could hear loud voices and music drifting out onto the streets. Perhaps there he would finally find some clues. Once inside, he noticed a deep emerald mist hanging in the air, some Velonians blowing out that exact mist after inhaling from oddly curved pipes. Immediately, Keith felt nauseous and dizzy. Something in that mist made him feel absolutely vile, but it seemed like absolute bliss to the Velonians. Swallowing down the need to vomit, Keith forced himself to go in further, even deeper in the mist. He was pushed and knocked around for a bit, until he finally found a table at a far wall, away from the mist, where he could clear his head a bit. It took a while, but eventually he felt a lot less awful.

"First time?"

The voice startled Keith slightly, but he quickly regained his bearings and locked eyes with the Velonian now standing in front of him. "What?"

The scars running across the Velonian's cheek stretched when he grinned, a certain glint in his dark eyes. "You're not from around here, huh? Otherwise you'd know how to deal with the smoke by now." He seemed to take Keith's lack of response as some kind of challenge, refusing to give up. "Tourist? Right now's kind of a bad time to come sightseeing." Still no answer, and yet he wouldn't back down, taking a sip from a metal jug. "You must be lost. This place isn't all that friendly to strangers, so you better leave again before it gets dark."

"Noted," Keith replied dryly, making no move to leave. He watched the Velonian's face change, his expression darkening somewhat.

"Hey, if you need money, I can help you out." He said with a grin that spelled out nothing but trouble. "I've got this… _establishment_ right down the street. Let me show you around, give you a tour of the place and–" As soon as the Velonian reached out for Keith, he found his hand snatched out of the air and slammed onto the table. Before he could even word his anger, a knife sliced through the table, landing square in between his fingers, just short of slicing one off.

"Keep talking like that and your fingers won't be the only thing I cut off." Keith could see the struggle in the Velonian's eyes, the many emotions he wanted to express, the indecisiveness as to how to act now. By the overpowering look of anger taking over his face, Keith could already tell how this would go.

"You little–!" Suddenly, the knife sliced through the Velonian's hand, pinning it to the table. "AGH, FUCK!" His scream of pain was completely drowned out by the loud music and general chattering of the tavern.

"Only talk when you're answering my questions." Keith was tempted to twist the knife in the Velonian's hand, but ended up simply keeping his hand on the hilt, preventing the other from escaping. "If someone were to try and transport a large spacecraft underground, where would they go?" 

"How am I supposed to– MMHPF!" 

Keith had twisted the knife. Slightly.

"I don't know! I don't know, okay!" The Velonian was pleading now, hitting the table with his free hand. "I'm just brothel owner! I don't know–"

"Oh, a brothel, huh?" Keith hummed to himself, expression pleased. "That means you meet all kinds of people huh? Doesn't that include, you know… people who would know that stuff?"

"Th-That's confidentia– NGHHHH!"

Another twist. 

"Are you sure?" Keith asked, smile bittersweet.

"I… uh… I might be able to make an exception, just please take out the knife already, _please_!" 

Keith lingered for a moment, watching the Velonian squirm, before slowly pulling out the knife. There was a moment in which he wasn't sure if the Velonian would bolt or not, but then the other simply flexed his fingers and hissed in pain. He clicked his tongue at the sting of the wound, before carelessly wiping his bloody hand on his pants.

"Got enough scars already," he complained, murmuring to himself. "Talk about roses having thorns."

"What was that?" Keith immediately asked, his very tone a threat.

Immediately, the scowl disappeared from the Velonian's face and he put on a nervous smile. "Nothing, nothing." His smile then slowly dropped, a sigh tearing from his chest, shoulders sagging slightly. "Gotta say, I did not expect to get stabbed tonight."

"You make it sound like you get stabbed a lot."

The Velonian eyed Keith quizzically for a second, before turning around and searching the tavern. After a while, he pointed at someone sitting on top of a table and singing along to some song. "That chick stabbed me last week for hitting on her girlfriend. She has two, so I thought that maybe she wouldn't mind sharing."

Keith had no response to that. He was at a complete loss for words, unable to even judge if this guy was being sarcastic or not. Was he supposed to laugh? "I can put a hole in your other hand too, if you want. Make it even."

"No need," the other immediately answered, backing away slightly. "I'll just… give you what you need and we'll both be on our merry ways, okay? Okay."

Nodding, Keith followed the Velonian as he quickly began making his way out of the tavern. On his way, the brothel owner bid some of the patrons farewell, clearly a man of the people despite his profession and the many scars lining his skin. Keith briefly wondered if he was an alpha or a beta; based on his minimal knowledge of the topic, the Velonian most likely wasn't an omega. Keith briefly entertained the thought of maybe asking, but figured it would only lead to unnecessary, annoying small talk. And so he stayed silent.

They stepped outside and were immediately greeted by the type of cold that seeped deeply into your bones, settling there and remaining even after being inside, in a warm room, for a while. Shivering already, the brothel owner jogged down the street, rather quickly coming to a stop in front of a nondescript, wooden door. 

A hand on the door knob, he turned around and faced Keith. "So right around now, two of my regulars should be showing up. One of them is a pretty high-ranking guy in the security force. He should know a great deal. Other one is… or _was_ this big-shot senator who would constantly wave his money around. Not so much anymore, but still comes around anyway." He stared at Keith for a moment, seemingly waiting for some kind of response. "That good enough? You're not gonna kill me if they're not here, right? That's not my fault! I–"

"It's fine," Keith cut in, suppressing a sigh. "Just open the door already so we can get this over with."

Shrugging, the owner swung the door open, revealing to Keith a world he never thought he would ever set foot in. After a moment of hesitation, Keith followed him inside, into the hazy semi-darkness of the brothel, trying his hardest not to look too out of place. He could hear grunting and moaning behind closed doors, old floorboards creaking above him. On the outside, he looked completely fine, but on the inside he was very much wanting to crawl into a hole and never come out. 

"Get off of me!"

The desperate scream made Keith flinch and stop in his tracks, eyes leaving the floor at his feet to focus instead on the struggle happening in a doorway at the end of a hall. A female Velonian had tried running out of a room, only to be pushed down by someone much larger than her.

"Oh, that's the senator I told you about," his companion explained casually, not seeming in the least bothered by the sight of his regular violently holding someone down to the floor.

Keith almost didn't hear the words, the sound of his own blood rushing through his ears deafening. A burning heat rapidly spread across his entire body when the female Velonian continued yelling and cussing, scratching at her assailant's face, only to be slapped in return. Keith could almost feel those grubby hands on himself, threats being whispered into his ears. When he heard the sound of clothes tearing, the corridor began twisting around him. Suddenly, he was running, legs already burning as though he had finished a marathon. It didn't matter that his opponent could probably crush him simply by sitting on him. It didn't matter that he was some kind of important senator. All that mattered was that Keith got his hands around his neck.

A moment, a second passed and Keith found himself slamming into the guy, tumbling over the floor, before coming to a stop on top of him. And before he knew it, Keith's fist was already sinking into his face, the sound of bones cracking not even reaching his ears; whether or not they were his own didn't matter. With his scarf loosening, more and more blood splashed against his face with each hit, searing his skin and turning his entire world red. He kept hitting and hitting, the face underneath him growing less and less recognisable. 

And then, out of nowhere, he wasn't anymore. He was simply staring at a wall, unable to move.

"That's about enough," he heard the brothel owner wheeze into his ear, severely out of breath. "Can't have you ruining this place's reputation even more."

It took Keith a second, but he quickly realised that the guy had him restrained, completely immobilising him. "Let go," he panted, wincing at the pain in his throat that speaking caused. 

"You won't kill him?"

Feeling something wet slide down his cheek, Keith clenched his teeth. "I can't promise that."

"Well, you're gonna have to, otherwise you're not gonna get any answers," the brothel owner continued, never letting Keith move even an inch. "My other regular didn't show up today. You need this guy."

Keith waited until his breathing evened out more before answering. "If you can so easily restrain me like this, why go through the trouble of helping me?"

"That's a good question," the other answered nonchalantly, shrugging. "I don't really think things through properly."

Having no other choice but to accept the answer, Keith sighed. "You can let go," he mumbled. As soon as the hold was loosened, he wiggled out of the other's hold and stepped away. 

"You," The brothel owner said, nodding at the female Velonian still fuming on the floor, "get out before I make you sign that contract after all."

She scowled at him, before slowly picking herself up and staring at Keith warily. Hesitantly, she walked past him, sticking to the opposite wall as to stay as far away from his possible. On her way out, she angrily mumbled to herself, occasionally looking back to shoot another suspicious and fearful glance at Keith.

"That's the one I hit on," the brothel owner explained once the door shut behind her. "The one with the two girlfriends. I mean, I just tried getting her in here, but then she went on and on about being in love with two people and how that was the _best thing ever_ and by then I already had a knife in my shoulder." Staring at Keith's now exposed and very much non-Velonian face, he then pointed towards the open room that this entire ordeal had started in. "You can use that room. Same rules that go for everyone apply for you too: don't be too loud and clean up after yourself. That's it." He then turned and wandered upstairs, disappearing without another word. 

And so, Keith was left behind with a barely conscious tank of a Velonian and an empty room. Almost immediately, he knew how this would go. The events of the past hour or so had taught Keith that Velonians in this part of Persia only spoke one language: putting knives in places they didn't belong.

* * *

Keith sat hunched forward with his elbows on his knees, chair backed up against the door and blocking the only way in. Or out. His steely gaze was trained on the half conscious Velonian slumped on the bed, looking back at him with contempt.

"You're not going to do _anything_ to me," he said, voice sounding nasally through his severely broken nose. Speaking seemed to cause him a great amount of pain, nearly making him double over. "I recognise you," he wheezed, struggling to put on airs and somehow convey his superiority still. "You're one of the Voltron paladins. You won't get away with this! Once I–"

"If I were you, I'd stop rambling. I'm not in a good mood." Frown seeming ever-present on his face now, Keith's expression only darkened. "Just answer my questions!"

"I told you, I don't know anything!" the Velonian yelled, immediately wincing and groaning to himself in pain. A surprised scream escaped him when Keith suddenly stood up to tower over him.

"I know you're lying!" he barked. "Your government's in shambles! You don't have any power anymore! What's the use in keeping quiet!"

Unbridled hate and anger swam in the Velonian's swollen eyes, oozing from his every pore. "I don't reveal classified information to people who punch in my face." Not even a second passed before he suddenly gasped, something shiny appearing out of nowhere in his field of view.

Keith had a knife poking at the senator's bottom eyelid. The knife tip was slowly sinking into the thin, nearly translucent skin, drawing blood. "I'm gonna do a lot worse to you if you don't talk."

Panicked, the Velonian looked back and forth between the knife and Keith, face going noticeably paler when he was met with Keith's intense, unwavering glare. "Th-The deal was for the Black Lion," he began hesitantly. "It was to be transported to an underground facility, disarmed and then loaded into a Galra battle cruiser."

"What do you mean by _disarmed_?" Keith asked this while softly tapping at the senator's eyelid with his knife.

"I-I don't know the details. All the highest government positions are h-held by the top scientists, so all I know is that they were cooking something up and were in talks with the Galra because of it."

"Where can I find that facility?" 

The Velonian eyed the knife suspiciously, before looking back up at Keith again, gulping. "There's a bridge going over a river nearby. Underneath the bridge is an entrance."

Keith watched the senator a moment longer, pondering whether to believe him or not, and ultimately decided that the guy most likely wasn't daring enough to lie to him with his eyeball on the line. "That better be the truth."

Noticing the knife slowly leaving, the Velonian suddenly smirked. "You're not going to get in anyway."

Deciding not to rise to the guy's mocking for once, Keith finally retreated completely and turned to leave. "I'll come back if I need to ask more."

"You won't find me."

Instead of replying, Keith instead found immense glee in simply smirking at the senator silently, watching as his cocky expression fell and panic shone in his eyes. Of course, he wouldn't be coming back just to find him. How would he? But the Velonian didn't have to know that.

Now knowing what he needed to know, Keith quickly left the establishment, not running into the owner on his way out, luckily. He couldn't even hear the sounds coming from the various rooms anymore, too absorbed with the thought of finally getting closer to Lance. It had only been a few hours. There was still a chance!

He only hoped he could get to Lance this time before anything bad happened.

* * *

Finding that damn river proved to be more taxing than Keith had imagined. He had gone ten minutes simply climbing on houses and searching the area to see if he could find it that way, before resolving himself to asking passersby for the way. Or he would have, if not every single one had disregarded him completely and simply walked past or even shoved him out of way. Fed up after a few minutes of this, Keith then went on to simply drag random Velonian's into dark alleys or into abandoned ruins to force the answer out of them, only adding to the list of reasons why he would get banned from even entering this planet's atmosphere soon enough.

Eventually, he had the information he needed and made his way to the river, two large moons now eerily glowing down on him from the star-speckled sky. They illuminated the city to the point that the streetlights seemed entirely superfluous. Keith almost felt more exposed than during the day.

Once he arrived at the riverbed, it almost seemed silly to think that it had taken him this long to find it. The water rushing through the river almost glowed in the moonlight, sparkling and shimmering as though diamonds covered its surface. Running now, Keith soon found the bridge as well, ignoring whatever trash was strewn around on the ground underneath it, heading straight for its metal foundation. He ran his hands over the weathered old metal, the uneven surface scraping at his fingertips. 

It took some time, but eventually Keith found a faint square indentation in the wall and pressed a hand against it. Nothing happened. Frustrated, he cursed under his breath, before knocking a fist against the indentation. He froze when he heard a quiet hissing noise, followed by mechanic beeping and whirring. A small panel in the wall slid away, revealing a number pad underneath. Keith couldn't decipher what was written on any of the two dozen or so keys, eyebrows furrowing together into a frown. 

"I'm in a hurry," he mumbled, annoyed, finally realising why that senator had been so smug. Of course he wouldn't get in without the right combination. As rickety and worn as this entire mechanism looked, it was still keeping him from entering. The darkness surrounding Keith suddenly grew more sinister, shadowy figures sidling up behind him, whispering mockingly into his ears. 

He had to get to Lance. Fast.

Hearing something caw loudly in the distance, Keith activated his bayard and backed up slightly. Both hands gripping his bayard, he swung it back, held his breath, then stabbed it directly into the keypad with all his strength. There was some resistance at first, his bayard slipping slightly, but then something finally cracked and he could feel his blade slicing through metal parts and cables, sparks flying and smoke immediately rising from the wall. He could hear things pop and hiss, the smell of something burning wafting past his nose.  

Stepping back, he braced a foot against the wall to pull out his now stuck bayard. Sweat beaded on his forehead when he had to pull harder and harder, the muscles in his arms beginning to strain, before he was finally able to free it. A sea of sparks came flying out with it and something exploded inside. Then another, louder explosion. With bated breath, Keith waited and listened to whatever was happening. He could hear things move around and buzz quietly, sizzling and cracking. Suddenly, another panel slid into the ground, revealing a hole large enough for Keith to fit through. To his luck, his bayard had cracked the door's code. 

Keith wasted no time entering. He was already running down a narrow staircase, when he suddenly heard the blaring of a siren. All of a sudden, he was bathed in flashing red light. "Must've triggered some kinda alarm," he mumbled, disregarding this obvious sign of trouble and quickly making his way further and further inside. 

The staircase seemed to go on forever, seemingly taking him into the deepest depths of this city. He began to lose track of time, legs beginning to feel wobbly after the seven-hundredth or so step. To Keith it felt like an eternity before he finally arrived in an actual room. It was nondescript, the walls made of concrete with nothing inside except for a small metal table. He could tell the Blue Lion was near, its energy now close enough that he could vaguely make out its location. It was close.

Guided by this vague feeling, Keith dashed through corridors, careful not to arouse even more attention. Along the way, he ditched his somewhat bulky and fluttery disguise, breathing a sigh of relief when he finally got rid of all that extra material. After that, it didn't take long to run into someone.

Now in a more lively area, Keith could hear agitated or panicked talking beyond the wall to his right. He couldn't tell if they were Galra or Velonian; not that it mattered to him either way. Careful not to be spotted, he continued, the loud alarm still so loud it was nearly deafening. The sound of several pairs of feet thundering over the floor made him stop in his tracks and retreat into a corner, waiting until the heavy footfalls faded into silence again. He was about to leave his corner and go on, when a surprised gasp stopped him.

"Identify yourself!" a Galra soldier screamed at him, rifle aiming straight at him. He had come from around the corner, the sound of his quiet steps masked by the loud alarm.

Keith clicked his tongue, then ran at the soldier before he even had a chance to react, much less call for help. Within a split second, Keith had activated his bayard and slashed the soldier, not even waiting to see the light leave his eyes before he ran off again. Oddly, his sense of where the Blue Lion was began to feel more and more vague the closer he got. It was beginning to seem impossible to find Lance this way. 

Following a mere gut feeling, Keith decided to run down the corridor from which he could hear the most commotion. The second he stepped into a new, much narrower area, a boom ripped through the facility. The overpowering sound of an explosion left Keith's ears ringing, the force of it nearly knocking him off his feet. It felt like an earthquake, rocking the very earth beneath his feet. Once he finally regained his bearings, Keith immediately headed towards the source of the explosion, unable to shake the feeling that that was where he needed to go. By this point, his lungs were beginning to burn, sweat dripping from his jaw, skin flushed. He had been running around searching for a few hours by now after all. His energy was beginning to reach its limits. 

Keith then rounded a corner and was suddenly met with chaos. 

He had found it. The Blue Lion. His initial rush of euphoria was immediately dispelled when he realised that the Blue Lion was lying on its side, surrounding by burning debris and looking to be held down by glowing purple wires. And amidst the commotion of Galra soldiers and Velonian scientists hectically running around trying to put out fires and help those that were wounded, Keith could see a group of them doing something at the lion's front. Only a moment later, his heart sank when he finally found what he had been searching for this entire time.

"Lance!" he yelled, his hoarse voice echoing through the large hall, causing everything to come to a screeching halt. A relieved smile spread on Keith's face when he finally spotted the Blue Paladin, who was being carried off by two massive soldiers. "Lan–"

"It was you!" Lance yelled as soon as his eyes fell on Keith, his angry voice even louder than Keith's had been. The enraged scowl on his face could be seen clearly even from this far away. "You activated the fucking alarm!"

Confused, Keith stopped in his tracks. "B–"

"SHITHEAD!" the other paladin then screeched. "You ruined it!" 

Unable to comprehend the situation at hand, Keith noticed too late what was happening behind him. By the time he heard the soldiers approaching, two of them already had him restrained, his bayard taken away by a third one. Keith's ears were still ringing, the string of curses Lance was hauling at him not even reaching him anymore. The edges of his vision were beginning to turn dark. 

He didn't even resist much, before the butt of a rifle hit him in the back of the head and Keith finally blacked out. Lance yelling at him from the other side of the room followed him even as he drifted off into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly late chapter again, sorry. I haven't been able to write much lately, so I only have one more chapter drafted before I run out, so after the next one there might be a longer wait in between. Depends on whether I can get the final chapter done within the next couple weeks.
> 
> I'll try uploading on a Friday again in two weeks, but otherwise the chapter should be up by Saturday.
> 
> Edit (12/13/2017): I've been having some pretty severe technical issues, both with my computer and with wifi. All my files are safe, but I have to push back the next chapter till this Friday or Saturday.


	14. Disorientation

No amount of struggling or yelling was enough to grant Lance a chance at escape. He could only helplessly flail and kick his legs at the air, slung over some guy's shoulder like a rag doll. Furious that things had turned out this way, he continued resisting despite his clear disadvantage. After being forcibly stripped of his paladin armour, he was now left with nothing but his black space suit. And the second they were closing in on a dimly lit corridor full of small cells, he panicked.

"W-Wait, no, don't–"

Before Lance could even protest, one of the doors was thrown open and he was hurled inside with enough force that he smacked headfirst into a wall. For a moment, he saw white stars exploding in his vision, but when he turned around, terrified, it was to see the cell door creaking closed in front of him.

"Hey!" he yelled, immediately smacking into the bars of the cell, arm reaching out too late and catching air instead of a Galra soldier. "Let me out!" He grabbed the bars, shaking them violently, the sound of the metal creaking and clattering almost deafening even to his own ears. "Hey!"

"Lance!"

Flinching, not having expected company in his cell, Lance's head snapped around to find Keith sitting in a corner of the bare, off-white cell. Immediately, he remembered his initial reason for being so enraged. "Why did you have to come after me?" Lance yelled, turning on the spot and watching as Keith quickly stood up to face him. "I was gonna destroy the tech they stole from the Orak! Everything was going perfectly until you triggered the alarm!"

A curt, humourless laugh left Keith at the words. "And you mean _perfectly_ as in you were in the middle of being captured?"

"Shut up, I was doing fine till you showed up." Crossing his arms, Lance turned his back on Keith, still fuming as he glared out of the cell. 

"With you _I'm_ _fine_ usually means _Help me, I'm a dumbass and I got myself into another mess_."

"Don't test me," Lance hissed, sending an absolutely venomous glare at the other. 

A moment later, Lance pressed his forehead against the bars, feeling the coldness of the metal seep into his skull, easing his headache only slightly. Despite his current annoyed state, Lance had to admit that having Keith with him helped somewhat. Even being locked up in a cell much like the one in the Persian prison, Lance felt oddly calm. Eventually, he sighed and turned back around again, slowly sliding down to the floor with his back agains the bars. Eyeing Keith for a moment, he took in his dishevelled and exhausted looking appearance. He couldn't even imagine what Keith must have gone through to get here on his own; Lance knew first hand how treacherous even something as simple as crossing the street in Persia could be. 

"Is that blood?" Lance suddenly questioned, finally noticing the dark red smears across Keith's face and hands, not to mention the splashes of red on his clothes. 

Keith briefly glanced down to look at his own hands, eyes wandering up and down his clothes as well, before shrugging. "Don't worry, it's not mine."

"Then whose is it?" The silence was unsettling, almost making Lance wish he could fall back into their normal insult slinging, no matter how infuriating it may be. "Keith?" Lance gulped. "What did you do?" No answer. "Keith!"

"I told you not to worry about it!" Keith suddenly exploded, booming voice bouncing off the walls of the tiny cell. "Sorry…" he immediately apologised in a much quieter tone.

Lance had never seen Keith like this, voice trembling with emotion, face buried in his hands. He could tell that Keith had gone through some kind of ordeal to get here. But for what? Just to _save_ him? Why go through all that? Why not just leave him? Why was Keith going this far for him? Because Lance was the Blue Paladin? Because they were teammates? Because Keith had _feelings_ for him? 

It took a moment, but eventually Lance regained his composure again. "What happened?"

A long sigh dragged out of Keith's chest, the expression on his face conflicted. "I don't know, I… you were gone and I-I…" Frustrated, he ran a hand through his already messy hair. "I was scared." He stayed silent for only a moment, eyes only briefly meeting Lance's. "Is this how you feel all the time? Scared and… like something horrible is happening every single second of the day? How are you still…?"

"Sane?" Lance finished his question, a flat smile briefly flashing over his face. "Can't say I am." The dim light illuminating the cramped cell crackled and briefly dipped them in darkness, before coming back on. "I'm really not." Lance was beginning to wonder if that forest guardian mind-melding them was actually meant to slowly dissolve their sanity over time by infusing them both with each other's inner demons, the dark emotions and thoughts they tried to hide from others. What other explanation was there for Lance to feel so irrationally angry and for Keith so incredibly anxious? "I murdered someone, remember?" Lance then continued, hanging his head. "It wasn't self defence. I was planning on it that entire time. And as soon as I had a chance, I–"

"He tortured you," Keith quickly cut him off, leaning forward where he sat. "There's only so much pain a person can take before they… you know…"

"Snap?"

"Yeah…" Keith drifted off for a moment, eyes dropping to the floor. Over time, his expression grew more and more grim. "I tried hurting Shiro earlier. He was warning me… tried getting me to see reason. But I was just so… _mad_. I couldn't think straight and so I… tried hurting him."

"Wow." Eyebrows raised, it took Lance a moment to even imagine that situation. Keith attacking Shiro sounded like a scenario that could only ever happen in a parallel universe. He wasn't sure how to respond, if he was even supposed to give Keith any kind of response. And so he decided to simply change the subject. "Think the others are gonna find us?"

Vigorously rubbing at his eyes, Keith shrugged. "Pidge has some way of locating our lions. Shiro said they were all gonna take some time to find you and come up with a plan." He began fiddling at a large bolt in the floor panelling. "While those Galra were busy… _disarming_ you, I tried finding a way out."

"And I'm guessing there isn't one," Lance sighed, letting his head drop back against the bars. Another sigh tore from his chest when Keith simply nodded. "Guess we'll just be waiting here then." 

Once silence settled between them, Lance immediately found himself bored. And inevitably, his thoughts began circling around the inescapable topic of his current relationship with Keith. Things between them were still awkward, to say the least. Lance was now acutely aware of how Keith felt about him and to be quite honest, he had no idea what to think. Sure, Keith was sort of attractive; in a rugged, desert ranger type of way. And as a person he was bearable sometimes – really only sometimes. But Lance was worried. So many questions constantly looped in his mind, going around and around, cycling endlessly without ever being answered. "Why'd you… let yourself get kicked out of the garrison?" he suddenly asked, making Keith snap out of his staring match with the bolt in the floor. "Why did you spend an entire year doing nothing but follow some vague, unknown signal?"

"What?"

Taking a small breath when he was met with utter confusion, Lance could feel himself lighten up slightly when he thought back to his days at the garrison. "I mean… you were _Keith_. The guy that just picked up piloting and mastered it instantly. The guy that somehow managed to win against someone from a higher grade, even in a busted jet! The guy that beat out an instructor in a race after just a year of training!" Lance had broken out into a faint smirk by now, albeit there was still a competitive glint to his eyes. "You can't tell me that was all just… _talent_. You had to have worked for that. You had to have been passionate about piloting." He paused for a moment to watch Keith ponder. "What happened?"

"Passion…" Shrugging yet again, Keith simply shook his head. "I don't know if I can call it that. I was just… chasing after Shiro, I guess. He was always top of his class, so I had to be too. I always fell a bit short though."

Well, that was somewhat illuminating. That meant Keith had never even seen Lance or anyone else in their class as potential competition. This entire time, Lance had been chasing someone, who himself had been chasing after someone else. The thought stung slightly, even after having become a paladin together with Keith. "Wait, so you feel inferior to Shiro?"

"Well… yeah, obviously. Who doesn't?"

"I dunno… I just always thought you were really… cocky, you know."

That seemed to finally tickle a small laugh out of Keith. "I can't really match up to Shiro. Don't think I ever will." Slowly, the look in his eyes became distant, gaze drifting off.  "I may be fast in my lion, but Shiro's… just _Shiro_. He just seems like he could do _anything_ , you know?" A faint smile flashed across his face, before vanishing again. "So when he disappeared like that, I kind of… lost it. Got kicked out of the garrison. And I just kept chasing after him."

Lance was speechless for a moment. "Man, you really don't let go, do you?"

The look in Keith's eyes turned contemplative, distant. As though his mind was slowly drifting off, to someplace far away from this prison. "No, I don't." His eyes were now staring straight into Lance's, unwavering. "I don't… ever."  

"Don't say stuff like that," Lance mumbled, backing into his corner further when the look in Keith's eyes only intensified. There was something disturbing in there that unsettled Lance.

"I'd kill for you, you know," Keith suddenly whispered, blandly staring off out of the cell.

Eyes widening, Lance again took in the sight Keith presented: small blood splatters on his face, across his neck, red smeared all over his knuckles, more blood staining his sleeves. "I mean… I get that we're in a war and all…" Lance eventually forced out with some difficulty, throat feeling tight, "but that's–"

"Horrible?" The look in Keith's eyes was oddly stony. "Inhuman? Guess it's just in my genes then."

Despite Keith being so painfully close, Lance felt like the distance between them was suddenly insurmountable. "You don't… you don't have to be like that."

"If it means keeping you safe, I will. Without hesitation." 

Keith said it with so much conviction that Lance almost believed it. Almost. "This isn't gonna work," he suddenly said, tone grave. "Whatever this… _thing_ between us is, it's not good. It's scary and I don't like it."

Cast in semi-shadow, Keith's face looked weirdly sharp and angular, his eyes glinting in the darkness. "Are you scared of me?"

Lance froze. Looking at Keith, his heart rate immediately picked up, his hands began to shake and his throat suddenly felt painfully tight. But he wasn't sure what to even make of all that anymore. Was he scared? Or something else? Did he want to get away from Keith, or closer? A subtle movement then caught Lance's eyes, causing his gaze to drift away Keith's to his lips, which he was biting nervously. 

Lance couldn't take his eyes off the sight.   

It was mesmerising, capturing his attention completely. With how much Keith was worrying his bottom lip, Lance could see it glisten in the darkness and even going slightly puffy. He wanted to bite it. "I'm not," he suddenly gasped, face hot. "I'm not scared of you."  

The way Keith's face changed at the words was a sight to behold. The relief and joy was so evident in the way his eyes lit up, it was hard to imagine anyone could ever think of him as an nothing but a cold-hearted jerk, an image that had been quite persistent during their garrison days – at least until the first time he had gotten into a fight with another cadet. It seemed like he wanted to approach Lance, say something, smile widening slightly, before he suddenly froze in place. His eyes darted to the metal bars keeping them trapped, a haunted look suddenly darkening his features; as though recalling a bad memory. "That's good to hear," he simply replied, settling back into his dark corner. "Cause I'm scared of myself."

The shockwave that then rocked through the facility almost didn't register in Lance's mind, the sound of metal creaking and moaning falling on deaf ears. He was completely taken by Keith's ambiguous expression.  

"Lance!" a muffled voice shouted from outside the cell somewhere in the distance. "Keith!"

"Pidge?" Lance mumbled to himself, confused. Then, it dawned on him. "Pidge! We're here!" Finally, Lance snapped out of it and jumped to his feet. He began knocking on the bars of their cells, pulling and kicking at them. He could hear Keith joining him in making noise, both now ruthlessly beating on the bars. 

It took a while, but eventually Pidge found them, coming to a skidding halt in front of their cell. "There you are!" Pidge greeted them, immediately typing around on a small tablet, glasses lighting up with reflections from the screen. "Hah!" the small paladin then cheered, the sound of the cell door unlocking following right after. 

Before Lance could even thank Pidge, he was met by an exasperated look the likes of which he had last seen on Earth from his mom when he had slept in and forgotten to pick up his nephews from soccer practice on a Saturday morning. "Uh… thanks?" he said carefully, a scared edge to his tone, a nervous smile forming on his face.

Arms crossed, Pidge stared them both down with an intense glare. "Both of you are really stupid and irresponsible. You know that, right?"

Reluctantly, Lance nodded with his shoulders slightly hunched. "Yeah…" 

"We know," Keith added quietly.

That was when Shiro joined, pulling along a mysterious black sack. "For the last time: no more impromptu solo missions!" he immediately bellowed, causing both to flinch and almost retreat back into the cell. 

"Sorry," they apologised in unison, staring at the floor.

Massaging the bridge of his nose, Shiro let out a deep, long sigh of undiluted suffering. "Here," he eventually murmured quietly, dumping the sack in front of Lance. "They had your armour in the front room. Guard in there was already looking up ways to sell it."

"Thanks." Lance's voice was quiet, meek, the Blue Paladin clearly ashamed for having to be saved yet again because of his own incompetence. He was nearly done putting his armour back on, when suddenly his eyes lit up and his posture straightened. "What about the Orak tech and the–"

"Hunk's destroying all of it right now," Shiro cut in, briefly glancing at Pidge, who was furiously typing around on the tablet again. "We don't have a lot of time. Let's get out before they send in reinforcements."

Nodding, both Lance and Keith followed close behind when Shiro and Pidge began running. They could faintly hear explosions going off every now and then, shaking the floor under their feet and nearly making them fall on their face each time.

"How did you find us so fast?" Keith eventually asked.

Pidge released an amused chuckle at the question. "We found your lion just booking it in a straight line towards this facility, so we followed it."

It took Keith a moment to truly process the words. "Wait, it came _here_?"

"Yeah, suddenly we just found it flying above Persia." Pidge shrugged, smile slowly fading. "We would've gotten here maybe an hour or so later otherwise."

Finally, Lance chimed in to add his two cents. "Are you saying Keith being dumb and going on an impromptu solo mission ended up saving us in the end?"

Behind them, Shiro let out an annoyed growl. "Don't say another word."

All three flinched slightly, immediately running faster and pointedly ignoring each other. They then passed hallways filled with heavily armed soldiers, but they all seemed too occupied with the commotion to care about anything else. They were in chaos, frantically running around like headless chicken. And thus the paladins were able to quickly slip through the facility mostly unnoticed, only ever having to stop to scope out their way forward. 

"Hunk is going to join up with us at the lions," Shiro said when they approached a large, dimly lit hall. "I think he's just about done destroying everything."

Just as Shiro finished his sentence, they entered the hall and were met with the sight of their four lions lined up waiting, surrounded by gleaming blue spheres.

"Their shields protect them from the portable Orak devices," Pidge explained. "But there's also larger devices somewhere around here that can pretty much hold anything, no matter the size. Even our lions."

Immediately, Lance let out a pained groan. "That would've been great to know. You know… a couple hours ago."  

"Yeah, it really would have," Keith added quietly, expression downcast. 

Shiro seemed to notice the dark look on Keith's face, but didn't comment on it. "Okay, let's get in our lions. The explosions have stopped, so Hunk should be on his way back."

Hastily, the paladins scattered and dashed towards their lions, eager to get back into their pilot seats. A few moments later, the mechanical lions all lit up and jumped to their feet, roaring. 

The sound of heavy metal colliding with more metal then approached from outside, growing louder and louder, more frantic as it closed in. Soon, the Yellow Lion burst through the entrance, sliding to a stop in front of the other lions. 

"We gotta get out, _now_!" Hunk yelled, voice frantic. "I destroyed everything but a couple packs of them have been chasing me for ten minutes or something now! I can't shake them, I–"

"Okay, okay!" Shiro interrupted him. "Get ready to head out!" 

"Wait, how?" Searching the room, Lance didn't find any exit other than the one they had come through. "There's only one–"

"Look up," Pidge cut in.

"Wha…" As soon as he glanced up, Lance found a large, dark hole in the ceiling, big enough for one or even two lions to fit through. Only now he noticed all the rubble and debris scattered at their feet. "Let me guess… Keith's lion." 

"Yeah…" The resignation in Pidge's voice had a slight mocking edge to it.

"Shut up," Keith protested weakly. Clearly, he was at least slightly proud of his lion, even if he didn't say so.

Meanwhile, Hunk was still a nervous mess. "Okay, that's great and all, but can we leave _now_ , please?"

Chuckling, Shiro finally gave the command, prompting the lions to kick off the floor, thrusters immediately going at full power to quickly propel them upwards and through that hole. It took a while to even see light and be able to see where they were going, but eventually they made it outside where the sun was beginning to come back up the horizon, painting the planet in an eery purple light. 

"So… what's the plan now?" Lance broke the silence that had settled, staring off towards the horizon.

"Well…" Shiro went silent for a moment, seemingly pondering his answer very carefully. " _Ideally_ , we would defeat the Galra and manage to patch things up with the Velonians, but–"

"That's not happening." Keith's tone was final, not allowing even the slightest bit of arguing. "Not after what they did to us."

A sigh escaped Shiro. "–but we're having trouble agreeing what to do exactly," he finished his sentence.

"We're not helping those lying assholes!" Keith barked, words laced with a searing rage. "They're just gonna stab us in the back again! They did it to the Orak and they'll do it to us! _Again_! We–" 

"Keith!" Lance interrupted, watching as the Red Lion's head snapped towards him, making him flinch slightly. "Calm down," he murmured in what he hoped was a soothing tone. He could almost imagine the absolutely enraged look in Keith's eyes right now. But at least he had Keith's full attention. "I really don't mind helping them," Lance then admitted. "I mean… their government might be really shady and messed up, but there are people living here who have nothing to do with any of that. We can't just abandon them." 

"Lance is right, Keith," Shiro interjected, tone authoritative. "Us paladins have a duty to fulfil here, regardless of whether or not we like who we're helping. If we cherrypicked who we do and don't help, that wouldn't make us any better than the Galra."

After a long silence, Keith's lion sat down with its tail somewhat agitatedly whipping at the ground. 

"Guess that argument's settled then," Hunk said with a small chuckle.

A sigh left Shiro as he turned his lion towards the centre of the city, where Galra ships were still looming in the sky, dropping rockets and shooting at buildings every other minute, mostly as a threat. "We need to hurry before they find out their little retrieval mission failed completely. Once they do, there's really no telling what they'll do to this place."

The other lions all turned to look at the threat hanging in the purple sky, to watch as smoke and sparks billowed up from the destruction below. It was a depressing sight, a visualisation of their failure to foresee this kind of thing happening. 

The first to take off was Shiro, his lion pushing off the ground towards the sky. "Let's go!"

Keith had already jumped to follow Shiro before he had even finished his sentence, the other three close behind. Together they raced towards the heart of the battle and gradually, were able to see what was actually happening. By the looks of it, the Velonian rebels were actually retaliating! They zipped around Galra ships in small fighter jets, shooting at them from buildings and from the ground. Their efforts seemed futile though, since the Galra didn't seem the least bit bothered. All they had to do was drop a single rocket to blast away an entire group or shoot off a short beam at a building to stop the assault from that direction as well. It was like watching an elephant smash an anthill. 

The first to arrive at the battle was, of course, Keith, who wasted no time taking down Galra ship after ship, lion gracefully and efficiently racing through the air. The others soon joined him, the five quickly taking down a third of the ships that were simply looming. The rebel fighters flew down low to avoid colliding with them, instead focusing on smaller battles happening on the ground. It was an all out brawl, the Galra at a huge disadvantage now with two parties against them. 

Lance took some hits, but overall was able to work with both Hunk and Keith to take down larger ships, while Shiro and Pidge helped out Velonians wherever they could. The Blue Lion's leg still felt a bit funky to Lance, despite the many hours of work put into repairing it. But with no time to focus on details like that, Lance quickly adjusted and forgot about it. 

Soon, the sky began clearing up, the shadows cast by the fleet of Galra ships thinning out. The broken hulls of drone-steered ships littered the ground below, flames licking at the metal and smoke rising from the wrecks. Once the last large-scale ships began falling, Lance finally came to a stop and wiped sweat from his brow. All that was left now were small fighter jets that even the Velonians on the ground could take out.

"We're getting there!" he could hear Shiro shout. "Don't lose focus now!"

Breathing out heavily, Lance dodged a barrage of attacks from a group of fighters and sentries, quickly flying away to gain some distance, then returning fire. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see the Yellow and Black lion taking down the last large ship, immediately splitting up to avoid attacks from two groups trying to corner them. Shiro was constantly shouting out orders, organising their assault and making sure things went smoothly. 

The Galra fleet then went down quite easily after their numbers had dwindled to about half. Within mere minutes, the sky was clear again, the sparking debris on the ground the only reminder of the battle that had taken place. Lance finally allowed himself to heave a sigh of relief and let go of his control sticks to stretch and bend his tensed up hands and fingers a bit. His eyes eventually wandered downwards, towards where the Velonian rebels remained still fighting a few stray Galra soldiers; it looked as though they would be done soon as well. 

A tired smile stretched across Lance's face, the paladin slowly leaning back into his pilot chair. His lion simply floated in the air, watching as his teammates began doing the same. They were all exhausted. Lance in particular couldn't even remember a time where he hadn't felt tired. A constant sense of tiredness had seeped deeply into his bones, constantly pulling at his eyelids and clouding his mind. Perhaps now, with things settled, he would be able to have a night of peaceful sleep for once. 

"Guys…" Pidge's nervous voice suddenly sounded. "What's that shadow?"

Lance followed the Green Lion's line of sight and stared up into the sky. At first he couldn't see anything. Only when he saw the sky rapidly going darker and darker did he realise what was going on. "Is that a huge-ass ship coming down?" 

"It is." Shiro sounded tired, but still determined. "Get ready. Don't let your guard down."

Only a second later, the thing in the sky broke through the clouds obscuring it, revealing itself to be an enormous Galra battle cruiser escorted by dozens and dozens of sentries. Angular with sharp edges, it pierced through the sky like an arrow through water. The purple of the sky reflecting off its hull only made it look even more forlorn.

Lance was still horrified by the view when he caught sight of Keith already charging at the thing. He wanted to shout after him, warn him not to be so reckless, when suddenly Keith stopped on his own, lion simply hanging in the air motionlessly.

It was too late by the time Lance noticed what was going on. 

A split second later, the Red Lion was wrapped up in the legs of a spider-like metal creature, struggling to break free and falling quickly in the process. Two more of the creatures were dropping from the large ship, descending onto Persia like shiny little black meteorites. Shooting at them simply offset their path down, resulting in the lions' attacks barely scratching them. In horror, the paladins watched as the other two landed near the rebels and immediately began attacking. They were fast and powerful, jumping from one spot to another within a second, rapidly crawling up walls and shooting out attacks in all directions the entire time. The rebels stood no chance. 

Meanwhile, the Red Lion was still struggling to free itself. The spider had it in a vice grip, squeezing and digging into the lion relentlessly.

"Keith!" Heart hammering in his chest, Lance's eyes followed Keith on his way down. 

Hunk, who was closest, tried somehow catching him, but ultimately was too far away. And so Keith simply sailed to the ground, weighed down by the spider. His lion disappeared between buildings and a moment later, the sound of him crashing reverberated through the air, dust and debris flying up where he fell.

Immediately, Hunk dove after him, prompting Lance to do the same. Lance could vaguely hear Shiro shouting something, but the words didn't even register in his mind. All that filled his mind was an image of the Red Lion lying somewhere broken and contorted, Keith trapped inside as a mechanical spider stabbed at his lion.  

When the two paladins got to the crash site, they were met with the sight of the Red Lion still tangled with the spider, although now it was finally able to retaliate. The lion had its fangs in the spider's body and had torn off one of its sharp legs already, the limb now lying discarded on the ground, still twitching. The spider seemed unperturbed though, ruthlessly stabbing at the lion with its legs and blasting attacks into it at point blank range. It blew off another one of its own legs in the process, but the Red Lion didn't look much better either.

Before Hunk could even begin to think what to do, Lance had already jumped in. With a roar, the Blue Lion jumped at the spider and with the massive weight of its body, managed to knock it off Keith's lion. It took the Red Lion a moment to regain its bearings, before it was standing on its own four feet again. Hunk was about to join the two, when Pidge's voice stopped him.

 _"We need help over here!"_ Pidge sounded frantic, words slightly distorted. _"There's two of those spiders here and we can't deal with them on our own!"_

 _"I'm coming!"_ Hunk immediately yelled, turning his lion on the spot and speeding off. 

That left Lance and Keith to fight on their own. They glanced at each other for a moment, the hollow, tinny hissing of the spider creature permeating the air. There was a mutual understanding in that moment, a certain acceptance of their situation and what needed to be done. They didn't have to put words to it to know what the other was planning. 

"You go right?" Lance asked, already readying his lion.

Keith mirrored his movements, lion hunching down, eyes gleaming. "Yeah." 

Even though it was carefully observing their movements, the spider seemed unprepared when the two lions suddenly rushed towards it. It tried somehow slipping away, but only ended up running into Lance's path, who immediately pounced on it. The Blue Lion sank its fangs into another of the spider's legs, tearing it off after some struggling. Immediately, the spider shot at him and managed to get a good hit or two in, but its efforts were futile, especially when the Red Lion made to grab another of its legs. The spider seemed to sense Keith's intent. The second Keith came anywhere near its legs, it ducked down slightly, before shooting up into the air.

"It can fly?" Lance screeched incredulously.

Keith watched the spider sail through the air for a moment, before letting out a disbelieving chuckle. "It can't. It's just jumping."

Jaw dropping in horror, Lance watched as the spider closed in on a building, before smacking belly-first into a skyscraper, shattering dozens and dozens of glass windows in the process. It crawled along the building, leaving behind a path of destruction on its way across. It soon began shooting again, blasting holes into the ground surrounding the lions. After a while, it even began launching missiles. 

"I think it's sick of us plucking out its legs," Lance noted, jumping away from the ground just as a missile was about to hit his lion. He could hear Keith cussing in frustration, as well as the others desperately trying to both dodge attacks and somehow damage the spiders. "I think if we can destroy all its legs, we'll–"  

In that moment, all of Lance's plans and strategies were torn up and scattered into the wind: the spider briefly stopped its assault, wiggled around a bit, before three brand new legs shot out of its body. 

"Okay…" Sighing, Lance suppressed a shudder at the disturbing sight. "Now what?" 

Keith was seething now, mumbling curses under his breath, his lion restlessly whipping its tail around.

Then, like an angel descended from heaven, Shiro's voice sounded to impart on them their strategy to win. _"This isn't going anywhere,"_ he gasped, clearly still in the middle of trying to defeat the spiders. _"We need to form Voltron!"_  

The words made Lance's blood run cold and he was almost certain Keith was feeling something similar. After all, their last attempt to form Voltron had gone everything _but_ well. Lance almost wanted to continue fighting this spider with Keith, alone, rather than try and form Voltron with the others. "But we–"

 _"We need to at least try!"_ Shiro insisted. _"Unless you have a better plan."_

Dodging another missile, Lance could feel his lungs beginning to burn, noticing finally how erratic his breathing was. "I-I don't."

_"Okay, then let's go!"_

Lance's stomach tied up into knots the second he took off with his lion. He winced at how painful his tight grip around the control sticks were, but was unable to loosen up his fingers even a little. 

Suddenly, the spider flung off its perch on the building and jumped towards the Blue Lion. By the time Lance noticed it, it was already halfway there, mechanical legs spread out, the forlorn red glow of its eyes visible even from a distance. Already, Lance could tell he wouldn't be able to completely dodge it anymore. Clenching his teeth as his heart hammered against his ribs, he abruptly stopped his lion in mid-air, before yanking his control sticks all the way back, sending his lion straight up. 

The spider reached him in that moment and a few of its legs grabbed on to his lion's backside, pulling him down and trying to poke its sharp legs through the lion's armour. After a few seconds of shakily sailing through the air along with the lion, it finally fell off, one of its legs still stuck in the Blue Lion. 

"It just had to be spiders," Lance whined, managing to shake the spider leg off his lion. Glancing sideways, he could see Keith's lion looking back at him. "I'm fine," he mumbled, watching as the Red Lion turned back around again and sped off without Keith saying a word. 

They soon both arrived where Shiro, Pidge and Hunk were still struggling against the other two spiders. Hunk's lion looked incredibly beat up, scratched and even slightly dented in some places. Pidge was desperately dodging the creatures while Shiro fruitlessly tried somehow pinning them down or shooting at them. One of these mechanical beasts was hard enough to deal with, but two was an impossibility. If one was in danger, the other would jump in and completely derail any attempt at an attack. They covered each other and left no openings to attack. Not to mention the fact that they constantly shot out energy beams and missiles in all directions, already making it difficult to get close.

The moment the other three caught sight of Lance and Keith, they flew away from their respective spots to quickly meet up with them and move into formation, racing up towards the sky. Soon enough, their lions began shifting and twisting, snapping into each other and merging together. 

When the Blue Lion transformed into Voltron's leg and began attaching itself into the Black Lion, Lance could feel a searing heat run up his arms and into his chest. It made him want to let go of his controls, but he couldn't. His entire body seemed frozen in space, forcing him to suffer through the agony of this intense heat shooting up his limbs. He could hear his lion roar, but even that sound became distorted and warped, trailing off into the distance where he could barely hear it. 

And beneath all that, underneath the heat, the pain, the agony, beneath it all Lance could not shake this bone-crushing sense of uncertainty and dread. He was afraid of the unknown, of this city, of himself and this entire situation. And even if he didn't want to admit it, he was afraid of Keith; or at least what he had turned into because of him. It all dawned on Lance all at once at the exact same moment; the fact that he had brought about this crisis with his initial decision to go on a solo mission, the fact that he had and was _still_ lying to everyone about what exactly had happened, the fact that Keith's feelings for him had somehow corrupted him to the point of turning him into some kind of murdering sociopath. Lance wasn't even sure who Keith was anymore.  

It all came crashing down on him the moment the Blue Lion was meant to connect with the rest of Voltron. And the second Lance felt a ripple in the mental bond he shared with the others, he knew what was coming.

Voltron violently burst apart, limbs messily turning back into lions and flying away in all directions. Without the zero gravity of space, there was nothing to catch their fall, causing each and every lion to be smashed ruthlessly into the ground, destroying parts of the city on their way down. 

And the entire way down, that burning sensation plaguing Lance only intensified. 

* * *

When Lance blearily blinked his eyes open, he was first met by darkness. Trying to move his lion only resulted in it releasing a low growl, almost as though in pain. "Don't worry, girl," Lance tried soothing it. "We'll get out of this, I promise." Slowly, his eyes adjusted to the darkness and soon he was able to see what was actually around him: rubble. Lots and lots of it. Apparently he had crashed into a house and gotten buried underneath the destruction. With a whispered apology to his lion, he tried to move it again, forcing it upwards with more and more strength. After a while, he could hear rocks falling away, specks of light beginning to peak through a few gaps. 

After a few minutes of struggling, the Blue Lion finally burst through its debris prison, quickly digging its way out after that. Lance winced slightly at the thought of how dirty it must be now. Looking around, he couldn't find any of the other lions or even any indications of where they might have landed. The entire city seemed to be smoking by this point, making even the crash site of a mechanical battle lion blend in with the rest. Taking in his surroundings more, Lance found an enormous broken water pipe hanging out of a destroyed skyscraper, masses of water gushing out of it like a waterfall onto the street below. It vaguely reminded him of the waterfall in the Orak forest. 

Suddenly, the ground quaked, prompting Lance's eyes to dart around frantically, panicked. All until he spotted the familiar shape of the Red Lion. "Keith!"

"Lance!" Within seconds, Keith and his lion were standing in front of Lance. "You okay?"

"Yeah, you?"

Keith sighed, his lion sitting down with its tail agitatedly sweeping over the ground. "Could be better. But I'm okay." He went silent for a moment, lion staring off to where Keith could still hear the muffled booming of distant battles. "I managed to hold a connection with Shiro for a couple seconds, but I didn't hear everything that he said, so I'm not completely sure what the plan is." The Red Lion turned its head back to stare at Lance now, eyes gleaming. "He said to wait for a signal, but I'm not sure what that's gonna be either."

Lance let the words go through his mind for a moment, trying to somehow figure out what exactly Shiro might be planning. But knowing next to nothing about the current situation, he came up empty. "Okay…" During the silence that followed, Lance finally took a closer look at the Red Lion. It looked beat up, scratches from the spider's legs littering its surface. Something in its shoulder was sparking. And somehow, Lance couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. "Keith, are you really fine?"

There was a notable pause. "Yeah. Why?"

"I dunno, you just… don't seem fine." Lance nervously shifted around in his seat and watched the Red Lion closely, watched its every minute shift and motion. "Are you hurt?"

Sighing, Keith's voice lowered to a mumble. "It's not a big deal."

"So you _are_ hurt!" 

"I said–"

"I heard you the first time!" Lance barked, already feeling heat shooting into his head in anger. "Get– Wait…" Quickly jumping out of his pilot seat and tearing off his helmet, Lance promptly exited his lion. Once outside, he marched towards the Red Lion, rage fuelling his every step. Once there, he planted himself squarely in front of the lion with his hands on his hips, eyes stern. "Get out."

It took a while for Keith to respond at all, but when he did, his voice was quiet. "Are you being serious?" Even from this distance he could probably see the way Lance narrowed his eyes at him. "We're in the middle of a war zone." When Lance threateningly slid his thumb over his throat, helmet dangling from his other hand, Keith finally caved. "Fine! Jeez…"

Satisfied, Lance stood with a smug smirk and watched as, after a while, Keith exited his lion as well with his helmet under his arm. The smirk quickly disappeared though when Keith came towards him with a hand over his neck, blood spilling over his fingers. 

"It's just a cut," he murmured, almost too quiet to hear.

"A cut that's bleeding a lot." Lance tried not to sound too angry, but he couldn't quite keep the frustration out of his voice completely. He impatiently grabbed Keith's wrist and pulled his hand away from his neck. Immediately, more blood came sputtering out of the gash in Keith's neck. "That seriously looks like it needs stitches, man. Do you even realise you could've died from this kinda injury?" 

"I'll be fine."

Lance could almost feel a vein pop on his forehead. "Shut up and sit down."

Only now did Keith seem to notice the little box Lance had brought along. "Is that a first aid kit?"

Confused, Lance paused as he was reaching down towards the kit. "Uh… yeah?"

"Where did you get that?"

Lance's confused frown only deepened, matching Keith's puzzled expression. "The little supply chamber in my lion? It's in the floor. Have you… You never looked in there?"

"Um… no?"

"Hunk pretty recently told us he replaced the first aid kits in our lions because Coran put all that weird Altean shit in them again."

"Uh…"

For a few seconds, all Lance could do was stare at Keith incredulously, jaw dropping slightly. "Last week, Keith."

No response.

"Oh my god." Lance was close to burying his face in his hands, but instead kneeled down and began rummaging around in his first aid kit. "Just gimme your dumb neck," he eventually ordered, pulling at Keith's arm and forcing him to sit down on a rock. 

Sitting down next to him, Lance quickly went to work cleaning the wound, almost expecting Keith to flinch when he pressed a wet cloth against it. With the other's eyebrows merely pulling together slightly instead, Lance went about his way trying to stop the bleeding, the cloth firmly against Keith's neck. The entire time, Keith's eyes bored into him, watching his every move and expression with such intensity, Lance could almost feel his gaze on him. It took a while, but soon enough the bleeding stopped, prompting Lance to fish out more things from the first aid kit. His hands shook slightly when he uncapped a small tube of ointment, before carefully smearing a small blob of it over the wound, hopefully disinfecting it somewhat.  

And still, Keith's eyes never stopped staring at his face. "You're being so… gentle."

Lance could feel himself blushing. "I can hurt you if you want."

"No!" Keith immediately protested, jumping a little where he sat. "It's just… It's kinda… hot."

Lance tried hiding his burning face in his shoulder, but failed. It only served to make him look even more flustered. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see a dusting of red across Keith's face as well. "You've got some weird turn-ons there, my dude," Lance eventually chuckled with a shaky smirk. 

And still, Keith was watching him, gaze oddly distant. He silently let Lance apply a bandage, before shifting towards him. "You still don't believe me, do you?"

Sighing to himself, Lance gently smoothed out the bandage, mindful of any odd wrinkles and bumps. "Believe what?"

"That I'm in love with you."

Stunned, Lance froze in place, hand retreating away from Keith as though burned. He was stopped by Keith suddenly reaching up to grasp his hand, keeping it near his neck.

"I get it, okay," Keith began, his hand around Lance's cold one warm and comforting. "I… kind of lost my mind back there. I thought something bad was gonna happen to you. I could almost _feel_ it." Fingers interlacing with Lance's, his expression darkened slightly, his entire posture deflating a bit. "I know I have some things to work through, I really do. All I'm asking you to do is to, just for once in your life, be honest with yourself." He watched Lance's expression carefully for a moment, a small smirk appearing on his face. "You've already not-rejected me once. I might be mistaken, but to me that's proof enough this isn't completely one-sided."

Caught completely off guard, Lance wasn't sure how to answer. Keith was, again, giving him an out, an opportunity to end this odd, unnamed tension between them once and for all, never to be spoken about again. He had the opportunity, and yet he couldn't take it. With everything that Keith had gone through to help him, knowing now the lengths to which he would go for him, Lance felt almost obligated to answer him truthfully. But simply the thought of actually telling Keith what he thought, instead of masking it in layers and layers of sarcasm, terrified him. "It's not…" The words died on Lance's tongue, head pounding and chest feeling hollow. "It's not one-sided."

Keith's lips briefly quirked up into a smile. "Then what's stopping us?"

Realising where this was going, Lance could feel his heart drop into depths so deep it left a hole in his stomach. He tried escaping again, tried pulling his hand out of Keith's grip. But Keith wouldn't let him.

"Lance… _please_ ," he begged, only pulling Lance further towards himself.

There was nothing Lance could do to stop his own resolve from melting away. There was no way he could look at Keith, at those incredibly sincere eyes, and lie. "I don't think this is a good idea. At all." He could tell Keith wasn't satisfied with that answer, a frown beginning to pull at his lips. "I don't think I could handle it," he finally admitted, the hole in his stomach still expanding as though it was aiming to swallow him up whole. "What happened here… in Persia… it changed me. I get scared when people are standing behind me where I can't see them. I get nervous around sharp objects because I feel like they'll end up hurting me somehow. I die a little bit inside whenever people touch me out of nowhere." As soon as Lance said those words, Keith's grip loosened. "I'm not the same person I was last week anymore. So sorry, but I don't see how this could possibly work out. Just save yourself the trouble and forget about this."

Slowly, Lance pulled away from Keith. The hole in his stomach was still expanding, still eating him up, pulling the ground away from under his feet. He stood up and for a brief moment, saw the soul-crushed expression on Keith's face. Something in him jerked painfully seeing that. He felt like he was suffocating.

All until a warm hand wrapped around his arm and stopped him in his tracks.

"My average with the training drone went down because of you," Keith suddenly blurted out, voice frantic and in disarray.

Confused, Lance slowly turned around. "What?"

With Lance's attention back on him, Keith suddenly looked both incredibly excited and terribly nervous, jumping up to stand beside Lance. "I used to get up early every morning and train. I was always competing against my own high-score and I would break it at least once or twice every week. I mean, sure, it's always just by a millisecond or so, but it's somethin', ya know." Realising he was rambling, Keith briefly went silent and took a deep breath, before continuing. "I haven't beaten my high-score this entire week. And it's your fault." 

Lance fully turned around now to face the other paladin, acutely aware of how close they were standing; so close, in fact, that he probably could have counted the amount of eyelashes sitting on Keith's lids. 

"Recently I've been sleeping in," Keith continued, leaning into Lance slightly. "By accident. So now I wake up and by the time I get to the training room, Shiro is already there and nagging me for not stretching enough."

Still, Lance had no idea where Keith was going with this.

"So the reason I've been sleeping in is because a certain _someone_ keeps coming around the kitchen almost every night to chitchat and annoy me."

Finally, it began dawning on Lance.

"And every time that happens, I just feel so… calm afterwards. So then I'll go back to my room and next thing I know it's morning and my alarm is waking me up, but I'm too cozy to get up so I sleep for another hour." 

When Keith paused and stared at him with such intensity, Lance felt like he was supposed to be shocked or surprised at the revelation.

"I've never done that before!" Keith explained, voice bouncing off of the ruins surrounding them. "I sleep soundly, I wake up late and I have this… _energy_ now that I haven't felt in _years_." One hand still grasping Lance's wrist, Keith slowly reached down to grab a hold of his other one as well. Carefully, he slid his fingers into Lance's. 

Even if Lance didn't want to admit it, no matter how much he tried to deny it, this was finally something he fully, whole-heartedly understood. Because he felt the exact same way. Lying wide awake in bed at night, staring up into darkness, the first thing he thought about was that, in that moment, Keith was probably sitting in the kitchen sipping at Coran's space coffee. And as soon as the thought hit him, the image had already burned itself into his mind and he would feel a yearning to see for himself, confirm if the scene in his head matched reality. More than anything, he wanted to see Keith in those moments. And yet… 

"This isn't good for you." Lance's eyes had found the dark red still clinging to Keith's jaw. "Look at you!" he yelled, directing rage-filled eyes at his teammate. "You're a mess!" He watched the smile on Keith's face melt away, leaving his gaze completely unreadable. Lance wasn't sure how to take the silent staring, Keith's hands grasping his beginning to feel uncomfortably hot. He wanted to pull away. Break away from Keith. Go back to his lion. But his body wouldn't respond. He wasn't in control. And that probably scared him most about this whole situation. 

"Lance…"

He couldn't meet Keith's eyes. At least not until Lance heard him chuckle quietly, slowly releasing his hands and taking a small step back.

"I know how fucked this whole situation is," Keith murmured, smiling mirthfully. "We did this to each other. So don't you think it's only fair we help each other get through this?" He watched Lance immediately responding with a confused stare. "I'm the reason you came here in the first place, remember? If I just… didn't get so angry so quickly, none of this would have happened."

Stunned, Lance began shaking his head, mind already racing with reasons why this was all _his_ fault, why Keith was simply a victim of circumstance, why everything–

"I still haven't apologised, huh?" Keith continued, joyfully ignoring Lance's obvious disagreement with his words. "That night when you left… I spent so much time being angry at you. I spent all that time being completely _furious_ , even though I was probably just angry at myself. If I had just noticed what was happening, my lion probably could have gotten to you faster than Shiro's and no one would have gotten hurt. Instead… I was too busy trying to take out as many Galra as possible."

Keith was apologising. THE Keith was apologising to _him_ , the loser cargo pilot. 

That's when it hit Lance. As much as he felt guilty about everything that had happened, Keith did too. And so did his team, most likely. And as much as he didn't blame anyone else, no one blamed him either probably. All of a sudden, that hole that had been eating him up from the inside out slowly began closing up, leaving Lance feeling both confused and relieved, as though a raging storm had passed and left him merely tousled. "No, you… I don't…" He finally met Keith's eyes and found him looking genuinely apologetic, sporting an expression Lance had never seen before; one that poorly masked the anguish in his eyes. "It wasn't anyone's fault but the Galra's. We're still here now. That's all that matters."

For a moment, Keith looked stunned and at a loss for words, before a smile returned to his face. 

Whatever he then tried to say was cut off by the loud rumble that resonated within both their minds, a lion's roar almost palpably echoing in their ears.

"That's probably the signal, huh?" Lance chuckled breathlessly, suddenly noticing how abnormally close Keith was standing. Right away, he had an impulse to close the small gap, pull Keith in by his collar, bury his fingers in that messy mullet and–

"Yeah, that's the Black Lion," Keith then replied, dark eyes noticeably heated as his gaze remained locked with Lance's. "We should probably… uh… leave."

Nodding enthusiastically, Lance still couldn't quite get his body to movie. "Yeah, yeah… definitely."

A nearby explosion finally broke them out of their daze, prompting both to finally hastily pull their helmets back on and stumble towards their respective lions. Once inside, Lance scrambled to get his lion's systems running again and within seconds, was dashing off to where he knew Shiro was. As usual, Keith was a split second faster and ended up ahead of him, but for once, Lance had no snark left to complain about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone didn't see my edit in the last chapter, this chapter is a week late because I've been struggling with my computer, my phone and also our wifi for the past two or so weeks. Had to get a new computer and most likely will also have to invest in a new phone, so things have been kind of chaotic. 
> 
> This is the last fully drafted chapter. The next one will be the final chapter, although I'll probably also write an epilogue. It might end up becoming a longer chapter because there's a lot left to resolve, so I honestly don't want to make any promises on when it will be done. It'll be done when it's done. Obviously I'll try not to take too long, but again, I don't want to make any promises.


	15. Non-REM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is pretty late. I anticipated it would take a while, but not this long. Finally had the chapter mostly finished a couple weeks ago after a lot of writer's block, but then got the flu and couldn't give it the final edit for a while. Studying for upcoming exams is also taking a lot of energy, so I'm glad I did end up with a decent enough final chapter anyway. I hope this chapter being a couple thousand words longer than usual is an okay compensation for taking so long.
> 
> Please let me know if there are any mistakes! This chapter takes a really long time to fully read through, so something might've slipped past during my final edit.
> 
> Enjoy!

Lance and Keith were barely off the ground with their lions and on their way to regroup with the other paladins, when suddenly, a black dot flew up out of the ruins of the city and straight into the sky.

"That's Shiro!" Lance shouted excitedly, already in the midst of steering his lion into a mid-air jump that propelled him straight up and into the sky. In the distance, he could see a green and yellow dot approaching as well, making the giddy smile on his face grow even wider. 

Before the lions ever came together, a spider was already on their tails, eager to attack now that the lions had left their hiding places. It seemed closest to the Black Lion and began swiftly jumping off of high-rise buildings in an attempt to intercept its ascent. 

"What did you do?" Keith questioned, already zoning in on the nearest spider. 

 _"We were leading them around,"_ Pidge suddenly replied, voice distorted through the still slightly jammed radio connection. _"We had to separate them and get them away from where the rebels were fighting. Where were you guys?"_

There was a beat of silence in which neither Keith or Lance quite knew how to reply. Neither of them was going to tell the full truth about what they had been up to.

Keith eventually cleared his throat. "We… lost connection. I only heard part of what Shiro said, so when I found Lance, we both just… waited for the signal."

 _"It worked out fine in the end,"_ Shiro interjected as he evaded the spider jumping at his lion. _"Now we just need to defeat these spiders individually before they can group up again."_

Before Lance had even processed the words, Keith was already shooting at the lone spider. Almost immediately it changed its focus from Shiro to Keith, leaping off another building and hurling its shiny metal body at the Red Lion. Its black body gleamed in the sunlight, before the spider sailed past the evading lion and into yet another building. It was too fast to land any shots, too nimble to catch. No matter how much Keith shot at it, it seemed capable of predicting the trajectory of all his attacks before he had even fired, allowing it to avoid all damage with ease.

"This isn't going anywhere," Keith hissed angrily, lion furiously firing laser burst after laser burst without avail. "It keeps dodging!" 

Shiro and Lance had joined the assault by now, fruitlessly trying to shoot the spider down. 

"Doesn't it seem even faster than before?" Lance eventually yelped in a panic. "Is it warmed up now or something? Is that why?" 

The second the words left his mouth, Shiro finally managed to hit the spider with a well aimed shot and sent it flying into the ground. "I thought they would be easier to handle once we singled them out." He sounded slightly out of breath, frazzled and hectic. "But this isn't going any better than before."

"They may have analysed our attack patterns," Pidge then chimed in, finally close enough for the connection to not be jammed. "They're probably feeding information to each other, so even if they're far apart, one could just be watching us from a distance and serve as a second pair of eyes." 

"More like another octet of eyes," Hunk threw in, his teammates suddenly going silent. "You know… cause they're spiders."

"Hah!" It was unclear whether Pigde's exclamation was meant to be a genuine laugh or a sarcastic one.

"Either way…" Shiro then continued, watching as the spider climbed up another building, scrambling to get closer to the lions again, "this is starting to look bad."

The lions then cautiously flew higher into the sky to get away from the approaching spider. As they did so, they all knew what Shiro was about to say.

"We need Voltron."

The Blue and Red Lion then glanced at each other, their pilots seemingly thinking the same thing.

"We could always try again," Lance suggested hesitantly, nervously sinking into his pilot chair. 

The silence that followed seemed paper-thin, as though it could be easily shattered by even the slightest gust of wind. And yet, no one seemed willing to break it. After two consecutive failed attempts, doubts had taken roots in every paladin's mind. Each one of them wondered if it perhaps had been their fault as well, if somehow they had contributed to their failed combination attempts. More than ever, it seemed almost impossible to form Voltron in their current condition.

"It'll work this time." The conviction in Keith's voice was surprising, almost uncharacteristic for the usually reserved paladin. "I promise."

While everyone else was too taken aback by the interjection, Shiro let out a small, stunned laugh in response. "I guess that's as good as we're gonna get," he chuckled, already steering his lion up towards the sky. "You heard it! We're forming Voltron!"  

Scrambling to follow their leader, the other lions then took off after him and shot up towards the sky. They quickly began gravitating towards each other, lions rearranging into limbs, a sense of unity overtaking the paladins' minds. There was an almost palpable pulse, one that synchronised their minds and steadily grew stronger. The sound of the lions finally connecting and clicking together was beyond satisfying. Soon enough, Voltron proudly hung in the sky, staring down at the city with gleaming eyes. Unfortunately, there was no time to feel happiness over their accomplishment. 

The spider had reached the top of the skyscraper now, close enough that it could shoot at Voltron and land its attacks. It seemed entirely unperturbed by the change of shape, mindlessly shooting at the super robot and showing no signs of slowing down. 

"We need to get closer!" Keith suggested. "They're at a disadvantage in close combat! That's how we managed to damage one earlier." 

"Won't we have the same disadvantage though?" Clearly, Hunk was not a fan of the suggestion, his tone apprehensive and doubtful.

"Do you have any better ideas?"

Hunk mulled Keith's question over for a second, before sighing. "No…"

"Have I mentioned how much I hate spiders?" Lance suddenly spoke up. "I didn't really process it earlier cause, you know… we were in the middle of fighting, but _holy shit_! We're fighting _spiders_!"

"Lance…" Pidge immediately groaned.

"Can't we just… you know… _leave_?" Lance continued, ignoring Pidge's warning tone. "I can feel my skin crawling just looking at that thing!" 

The words coaxed a curt chuckle out of Keith. "You're gonna run away from a fight?" 

Now _that_ shut Lance up real quick. "N-No…" he mumbled moodily, settling back into his pilot chair despite the hair on his body still standing on end at the mere sight of that horrifying hissing robot spider thing. 

"Guys…" Shiro finally said in a commanding tone, "I agree with Keith. We need to get closer and end this quickly, before the other spiders show up."

Once everyone had voiced their agreement, hesitation or not, Voltron finally closed in on the spider. It barely took a split second for it to jump at them, meeting them halfway and colliding with the robot mid-air. In an instant, it had its legs wrapped around every limb, glowing red eyes boring into theirs, its rattly hissing almost deafening now. 

"Get it off, get it off, get it off!" Lance screamed, panicked. 

"Keith!"

The second he heard Shiro's shout, Keith was already stabbing his bayard into its slot, a rumble running through Voltron when he turned it like a key. A sword appeared in the robot's hand and a mere flick of the wrist managed to cut off the spider leg restricting Voltron's right arm. And before the spider could retreat, the sword was already taking off more legs than it could regenerate at once, before finally slicing through its thick, round body. 

"Did we get it?!" Pidge asked, sounding both excited and wary as everyone watched the spider fall to the ground.

It limply crashed into the concrete below, creating a small crater and kicking up a large cloud of dust and debris. But most importantly of all, it stayed still, showing no signs of life.

"I'm not getting any readings from it," Lance announced, carefully scanning his sensors. "I think it's dead."

Everyone collectively breathed a small sigh of relief, hearts still jumping out of their throats. 

"One down, two more to go." The second Lance uttered those word, he heard a bone-chilling screech in the distance, a cold shudder crawling down his spine at the sound. "I really hope that's not what I think it is." He let out a small yelp when he caught sight of what was approaching: another spider. It was leaping from building to building, red eyes gleaming, closing in on Voltron _fast_. "I hate this so much." 

"Stay focused!" Shiro yelled, before steering Voltron into a defensive pose.

Barely a second later, the spider came crashing into them, almost knocking Voltron out of the air. It felt much heavier and bulkier than the previous spider, easily engulfing the super robot with its legs and preventing any movement.

"We're trapped!" No matter how much Pidge tried budging Voltron's arm, nothing seemed to work.

Until suddenly, Lance yelled "I've got this!", activated Voltron's leg thrusters and knocked the giant robot into a building, squishing the metal spider in between it and concrete. It began sparking and screeching, the shrill sound almost deafening, but did not let go. "One more time!"

"Lance, wait!" Hunk tried to protest, face going green. But with Lance already moving to pull back, he had to go along. 

The spider seemed to sense their intentions and quickly began crawling towards Voltron's back, digging its sharp legs into his wings and back. Before it could fully settle on its new perch, Lance yet again activated Voltron's leg thrusters and sent the large robot flying into another building, this time smashing the spider in between the robot's wings and windows. 

With the spider finally still, Voltron flew away from the now even more wrecked building, only to find the spider still locked into his armour. That prompted Lance to release a small screech of horror and Voltron to shake himself and swat the now dead spider off his back.  

"Where's the third one?" Keith immediately questioned, already searching the city for the last spider. 

It was quiet. Oddly so. 

Big and clunky as they were, as well as unable to fly, the spiders made quite a lot of noise as they moved. It was nigh impossible for them to sneak up on anyone, which made this sudden silence disturbing. It hung in the air eerily, floating and sizzling with tension. 

Suddenly, Pidge perked up. "There! Something…" Trailing off, the Green Paladin went silent for a moment. "What?"

"Wait, what just happened?" Lance was furiously tapping on his various monitors, bringing up maps and sensor readings. "You saw that too, right? Something big showed up North of us and then just… blipped out of existence."

"Maybe it was an error?" Shiro tried reasoning.

Hunk shook his head as he nervously continued searching the city. "I don't think it's an error. Errors like that would be fatal."

Lance gulped, eyes still locked on the spot on his map where he _knew_ something had just been there. "So… let's say that was the last spider. Doesn't that mean something ganked it?" He received no response, no one wanting to even imagine the implications of something like that. Lance was about to suggest checking out the location in question either way, when suddenly his lion's sensors went off again. "It's back! But…"

"It's bigger," Pidge concluded, voice laced with nervous tension. "A _lot_ bigger."

That's when a chilling howl seemed to shake the entire city, echoing and bouncing off the buildings, sounding both like a shrill shriek and several eerily human screams layered over each other.

"Can we leave now?" Lance whimpered. "I don't wanna see whatever made that sound. Especially if it's a spider."

He was ignored and on Shiro's command, Voltron began flying towards the source of the wailing. As they got closer, they began hearing a shrill rustling, like an old, broken robot breathing in and out. Soon, they rounded a corner and came face to face with the source of the noise.

Keith was the first to break the tense silence that had settled at the sight. "That's… the third spider, right?"

Splayed out on the broken asphalt beneath them was a mess of metal scraps, snaking wires and flickering purple lights. It was an eery sight, the heap of broken tech looking very much alive as it writhed around on the street, seemingly trying to pick itself up and failing again and again. The spider legs sticking out oddly in several directions only further confirmed Keith's assumption. 

Lance struggled to get his own voice to work. "Th-That's a couple too many legs for one spider though, isn't it?"

"I think it's trying to rebuild itself by using parts of the ones we defeated," Pidge explained, sounding more intrigued than anxious now. "It's some kind of hive mind after all! Maybe it decided that being split into three bodies is inefficient, so now it's gonna combine into one again. Or maybe one of the spiders is taking over the other two! Or–!"

"Pidge, we need some kind of plan to defeat it," Shiro cut in before Pidge could rattle off all the ways their enemy was fascinating.

"Um…" Still entranced by the distorted hunk of metal, it took Pidge a while to answer. "Shoot it."

"Brilliant plan, Pidge, thank you." 

"Always happy to help, Lance."

Hunk then spoke up hesitantly. "Guys, that doesn't look good."

One of the spider's many glowing eyes was growing brighter and brighter with each second. It made Lance think of dying stars, inevitably bringing back images of the Galra cruiser that had tried shooting him and ended up hitting Shiro. 

Sure enough, a wild, unguided beam shot out of the eye, slicing through two neighbouring buildings and tearing an enormous gash into both. The two ended up collapsing into each other, creating a large, thick cloud of dust in the process. It blinded the paladins for only a moment, before the spider's eery eyes pierced through the haze again. 

"We shouldn't get close," Shiro concluded. "At least not until we know what else it can do."

"You sure we have time to really examine this thing like that?" Lance questioned, nervously glancing around in search of the spider. Its glowing eyes had disappeared, swallowed up by the dust cloud that still hung in the air.

Before Shiro had the time to respond in any way, wires and metal cylinders suddenly came flying out of the dust and wrapped around Voltron, too fast for the paladins to react.

"We're trapped!" Shiro yelled, controls locked in place. Voltron began creaking as the metal bindings grew tighter and tighter. "We have to separate!"

In a flash, Voltron transformed back into five lions and quickly escaped the spider's grasp. Despite their swift escape, the paladins still found themselves being chased around by wires that seemed to swim through the air like eels. To their luck, the wires were unable to catch up after a certain distance. 

"How about we just all blast it with our cannons?" Keith suggested, already readying his lion on top of a building as the other lions settled in similar places.

Shiro only pondered the strategy for a short moment. "Worth a try."  

As soon as Shiro gave the signal, all five lions began shooting powerful laser beams from their mouths; their target was the hazy glowing mess somewhere in the dust. What they got as a response was a loud, angry screech, indicating they had hit their target. 

But soon enough, there was silence again. 

"I think we got it," Lance murmured, watching as the dust finally began to settle, allowing a more clear view of the streets below. What he found, to his surprise, was nothing. "Uh… where did that huge mess go? There's not even a scrap left."  

With everyone equally puzzled, it was Hunk who finally broke the silence. "Hey, you think it shot at those buildings to make them collapse and create that dust cloud on purpose to be able to move around without us seeing it?" 

"That's…" Shiro sounded like he had wanted to disagree, before suddenly something seemed to dawn on him. "Actually, it might have done just that. So far it hasn't used that laser any other time. You'd think with that much firepower, it would have utilised it more."

"Our sensors aren't picking it up either," Pidge added warily. "Whatever is blocking our radio transmissions could be messing with our sensors too."

Lance was idly flying above a building with his lion, listening to the conversation nervously and tirelessly searching the city for their many-legged enemy. A shudder ran down his spine thinking back to the hissing, shambling abomination. The other lions looked to be doing the same, uncertain as to how to proceed, now that they had no leads to go on. 

Suddenly, something wrapped around the Blue Lion's legs and began pulling it down. Letting out a surprised scream, Lance immediately sent his thrusters into overdrive, but it was no use. He was being pulled down fast by the seemingly zombified spider, thrusters unable to provide enough resistance. 

"Lance!" 

Hearing Keith's desperate cry, Lance tried even harder to free himself, suddenly painfully aware of his dire situation. If that spider shot its laser blast at him from this range, there was no telling to what extent his lions would be damaged. Not to mention its pilot. 

The other lions immediately flew in to jump to Lance's aid, but were kept at bay by the many wires and tubes slithering through the air again. Keith spat a curse, his lion's jaw blade cutting through wires left and right, the paladin heading for Lance in a straight line. No matter how many of the metal bindings clung to his lion, he continued blindly rushing forward. 

"Keith!" Shiro yelled when the Red Lion grew more and more tangled. "Settle down! You're not gonna help Lance by getting captured yourself!" 

But Keith couldn't hear him. Too loud was the rushing of his own blood through his ears, too noisy the rapid beating of his heart. Swift as it was, the Red Lion was the fastest to get through the thicket of wires and get close to where Lance was being held. But in getting there, Keith got his lion caught in a winding mess of metal wires.

Meanwhile, Lance could only watch in horror as the Red Lion disappeared in a forest of cables and wires in front of him, slowly being swallowed up by the broken mess of a Robeast. "Keith!" 

Almost out of nowhere, a loud screech cut through the air. 

"What…" With the wires binding him loosening suddenly, Lance was able to quickly escape with his lion, Keith doing the same. Upon searching for the source of the quite agitated sounding noise, Lance ended up finding the spider on the ground and the Green Lion's cloaking shield slowly dissolving. "Pidge?"

The paladin in question chuckled triumphantly. "Thanks for distracting it, you guys. Managed to get a couple good shots in thanks to you."

Before the spider ever had any time to recover or further rebuild itself, the Black and Yellow Lion came down on it as well, relentlessly hurling a barrage of laser blasts at it. 

"Hunk!" Shiro shouted hastily. "Cannon!" 

"On it!" 

A moment later, the Yellow Lion began slinging heavy shots at the spider. It couldn't dodge every single missile and ended up losing quite a few of its skewed legs, now struggling even more to drag itself across the asphalt. Once Keith and Lance joined in on the fray as well, it continued hissing and screeching for only a while, before eventually going completely silent and motionless.

"Is that it?" Lance asked once the dust had cleared again to reveal the once more broken and lifeless mess on the ground. "Did we beat it?"

"Looks like it," Shiro replied, sounding out of breath. 

Hearing the words and seeing no more sensor readings, Lance finally let go of his controls and fell back into his pilot chair. A long sigh escaped him and turned into a pained groan halfway through. "Spiders…" he whined.

"Good work, team," Shiro then praised them, the smile in his voice audible. 

Hearing the words, the paladins finally allowed themselves to relax, all surveying the destruction their battle had caused; the many crushed buildings, torn up streets and smoking ruins. They had beaten the enemy, but had they truly won?

* * *

The moment Lance stepped out of his lion and onto the debris-littered ground of central Persia, his eyes met Keith's. Lance's first instinct was to rush towards Keith and treat the newly reopened wound on his neck, but instead he lingered where he was. Blood was smeared across Keith's temple, bright red against his pale skin. Lance could see similar hesitation in Keith's dark eyes, neither quite sure how to interact now after their little heart-to-heart. Gazes dropping to the ground, they silently joined up with the rest of their team, but subconsciously drifted towards each other. They ended up standing nearly shoulder to shoulder as Shiro briefed them on their next steps, especially concerning Baki's betrayal. They were to search for any remaining rebels and other survivors, help anyone who needed it and hopefully find someone who could tell them more about what exactly happened between the Galra and the Velonians.

Once Shiro closed off the discussion, the group headed for what was left of the city hall in hopes that Baki was still there. When Keith began walking without even looking in Lance's direction, the Blue Paladin's body jumped to action on its own, his hand shooting forward to grasp Keith's. By the time Keith had turned around to send a surprised look at him, Lance had already squeezed his hand and let go hastily. Lance could feel the heat shooting into his face when he realised what he had just done, but it quickly made way for the haze settling in his mind when Keith sent a small, yet blinding smile at him, before turning around and following after Shiro. Lance stood there listlessly and at a loss for a moment, unsure what to even think, when he was suddenly woken from his daze by a quiet shuffling noise.

Glancing to his side, he found a suspicious shadow in a narrow alleyway, its exact shape uncertain. It could have been a mere shadow or the outlines of a person, Lance's eyes straining to make sense of what he was seeing. The hair on the back of his neck suddenly stood up when the shadow shifted with movement, hands almost instinctively shooting up to aim his bayard rifle into the alleyway. "Who's there?" he barked, loud enough for the rest of his team to hear. For a moment, he panicked, wondering why his sensors hadn't picked up any signs of other people being around. He clicked his tongue when he remembered that something was most likely still jamming all signals. 

Keith and the others had by now turned around and noticed Lance aiming at something, now rushing to where he was with their bayards morphing into their respective weapons one by one.

"Stop where you are," a voice suddenly warned from the alleyway.

Lance held his breath when a figure then walked out of the shadows, the rest of his team still uncomfortably far away from him. His heart began racing, sweat beading on his temple, all until he recognised the face looking back at him now, prompting him to almost drop his weapon. "You're alive." 

Flanked by a small group of armed rebels stood Baki, looking worse for wear. He seemed to be limping slightly, his once pristine uniform partially shredded and smeared with all kinds of dirt. His companions didn't look much better either and yet they had enough energy to aim their weapons at the paladins as well. "That I am," Baki groaned, sounding much older than he ever had before. "Seeing how you're standing in front of me like this, I can assume you defeated the Galra, right?"

Out of the corner of his eyes, Lance could see his team approaching slowly, weapons raised but eyes slightly less hostile. Aside from Keith, everyone seemed conflicted as to whether they should consider Baki an enemy or not. "You can," Lance finally answered. "You should've seen it. We kicked their asses pretty hard."

Baki couldn't suppress a small smirk at the cheeky response, slowly making his way towards Lance. He then almost immediately stopped in his tracks when the paladins tensed up right away, raising their slightly lowered weapons back up to aim at him again. Keith went as far as swiftly rushing to Lance's side before anyone could even react. Regardless, the smirk never left Baki's face. "I know you have no reason to believe me, but I really did want to be on your side, Lance."

Lance watched Baki, the exhaustion settled deeply in his amber eyes, the shadows lining his features. Sighing, he slowly lowered his rifle, the weapon shifting back into its bayard form at his side. "I know," he said quietly, eyes dropping to the dusty ground between him and Baki.

Immediately, Keith's head shot around and he sent a scathing glare at the Blue Paladin. "Lance, he–"

"It's fine, Keith." Lance was already prepared for Keith ignoring his words and blowing up at him, in his anger insisting that all Velonians were untrustworthy and shouldn't be treated as anything but enemies. But to his surprise, Keith did no such thing. Instead, he stared at Lance for a while, his expression softening gradually, before he sighed and finally backed off. Seeing this docile sort of behaviour caused Lance to be in a stunned daze for a moment, until he remembered the situation at hand and focused on the Velonian in front of him again. "Uh… so… yeah. We know you had no choice." He then finally noticed Vera among the group of rebels behind Baki. Predictably, she stared him down with her trademark death glare. But only until Lance put on a cheesy grin and winked at her, causing her glare to morph into a look of disgust. He would have chuckled at the reaction, if not for the fact that he could almost physically feel Keith's dark eyes stabbing him, as though they were burning through the side of his head like gleaming coals. "S-So what're you gonna do now?" he stuttered, gulping as he desperately tried not to look at Keith, neck stiff. "It looks like it's gonna be tough rebuilding everything."

Something like genuine resignation flickered in Baki's eyes, before his smirk covered up any sign of weakness again. "We'll probably evacuate to a neighbouring city. The mayor of Helio II still owes me a favour anyway. And now that things have calmed down, we can finally start searching for survivors too." He trailed off for a moment, usually cold eyes suddenly softening. "Really, thank you. I'm sorry things turned out this way, but I knew you would do the right thing. After all, unlike me, you're good guys."

Lance mulled Baki's words over for a moment, briefly at a loss for words. He hadn't at all expected that sort of response. "Being the good guys is in the job description, so don't sweat it. It's creepy when you suddenly go all soft on me." Now he could almost feel Allura also glaring at him all the way from the Castle. He was saying all the wrong things and yet Baki seemed amused. 

Baki's eyes suddenly drifted off, his gaze shifting around and resting on the many sites of destruction surrounding them to all sides. He momentarily seemed distracted looking at the many broken buildings, the fires and thick clouds of smoke hanging over the city. "It's okay if you don't help us from here on out," he suddenly said in a flat tone, voice uncharacteristically low. "You've done more than enough for us." A smirk then formed on his face, a certain fondness in his eyes. "We're a tough bunch, us Velonians. We'll manage."

"What if the Galra come back?" Keith suddenly asked, his dark gaze heated as he stared Baki down. "You know they're probably gonna come back for revenge, right?"

In response, Baki's smirk only widened, a small laugh passing his lips. "We're not completely defenceless, you know. At some point in time us Velonians were able to go up against the Galra pretty easily. But it's been peaceful for a long time, so people have gotten complacent and indifferent over the years. What happened in the past week will probably be a good wake up call for the rest of the planet. Changing things seemed impossible. That'll end now." He finally noticed Lance's doubtful and worried eyes peering back at him. "We'll be fine." 

A sigh fell from Lance, who continued staring at Baki with clear concern in his eyes. "You know how to reach us," he eventually said, crossing his arms. "Let us know if they come back. Cause, you know… it's kind of our job to fight those purple dickheads." To his shock, Baki's expression suddenly loosened up and he laughed – _genuinely_ laughed. It took him by surprise at first, prompting a confused frown to form on his face. 

"Fine, we'll let you know if they come back," Baki chuckled with slight resignation in his voice, as though he hadn't planned on ever agreeing. "I can never say 'No' to you. I wonder why."

Lance had to suppress a grin when Keith almost instinctively inched closer to him at the words, even _grumbled_ something unintelligible under his breath. "There's no one in this universe that can resist _moi_ , so I don't blame you."

Baki smiled to himself once more, before slowly turning to glance at his companions, silently exchanging words with them and then turning back around to face the paladins again. "We need to keep going. Feel free to send any survivors you find our way. We'll set up a shelter around the city hall building." As soon as Lance nodded at him, he bowed his head towards the other paladins, before heading off again with his little gang of rebels. 

The paladins watched them disappear into the ruins of Persia, the sound of their shuffling steps growing quieter and quieter, until the only sound left was that of the city still quietly rumbling with fires and the general sound of buildings crumbling.

Lance didn't expect it, so he let out a surprised gasp when Keith suddenly appeared in his field vision looking furious. "Um… sorry?"

"Are you _trying_ to make me mad?" Keith hissed under his breath, nervously glancing back at their other teammates who were quickly coming closer. "I know you like to flirt, but… you know… I don't like it. Stop."

Eyes widening and jaw dropping in shock, Lance could only watch as a red glow began blooming across the bridge of Keith's nose, before spreading to his cheeks and the tips of his ears. "I uh… um… yeah, sorry."

"What're you guys whispering about?" Shiro asked them as soon as he was in earshot, still blissfully unaware of the complicated relationship between the Red and Blue Paladin. He only received stunned silence in return, prompting him to sigh and eventually shrug, mumbling a resigned "Never mind" under his breath. "Let's search for some survivors and then we'll leave. Not much else we can do, especially if Baki really does get help from neighbouring cities. They should be fine on their own for now." 

The two simply nodded and along with the others made their way back to their lions. From there the paladins scoured the newly made wasteland of a city for any signs of life. Occasionally they would find little groups of survivors and point them to Baki's shelter at the city hall; other times they would have to quite literally pull or dig out people from the rubble. By the time their sensors didn't detect any more living beings within any of the ruins, the sun was already beginning to go down again. They were reluctant to leave Persia when it was still in such bad shape, but considering Baki's words, there probably wasn't much more they could do. And so after a final debriefing, they finally made their way back to the Castle.  

Overall, they had accomplished their mission. The Orak devices to restrain the Voltron lions were destroyed and the Galra had been defeated. And yet none of them felt like celebrating. Each one of them couldn't avoid thinking of the occasional "What if" questions, or shake the feeling of regret at having been unable to avert the utter destruction of an entire city. 

They had accomplished their mission and yet it felt like they had lost.

* * *

Room dipped in darkness, Lance laid messily sprawled across his bed, eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling. He could have been lying there doing nothing for ten minutes or an hour; he couldn't quite tell. It was the first night in a while that there weren't any shadowy voices whispering unease and terror into his ears, no flashes of broken memories assaulting him every time he closed his eyes. Technically speaking, he should have been able to sleep. He was exhausted to the bone from the events of the day, his bed was comfortable and warm, the temperature in the room perfect. Nothing was keeping him from falling asleep. And yet he was still awake.

Like so many restless nights before, Lance eventually reached a point where he gave up any hope of falling asleep, sighed and slowly crawled out of his cozy bed. Running a hand through his already messy hair, he threw on his blue robe and made for his door. Eyes heavy with exhaustion, it took him a moment to navigate through his dark room without bumping into anything, until he finally reached the door. After swiping his palm over the little touchpad next to it, he stood there waiting for it to slide open, gaze trained on the floor. By the time he heard the mechanic whoosh of the door opening, his eyes were closed and he was about to simply zombie his way out of his room, when his first step made him walk into something incredibly warm.

"Oh…"

The startled noise and the warmth suddenly encompassing him made Lance finally open his eyes again. It took a second for him to suddenly adjust to the dim lighting of the hallway, but soon enough he could make out the face mere inches away from his now. "Keith…" he whispered under his breath, finally realising that the other paladin had lightly grabbed him by his upper arms to keep him from bumping into him. 

Before Lance could even voice the question, Keith was already quietly rambling. "Uh… I was just… I was taking a walk and I um… uh…" 

Even in the semi-darkness of the Castle's night cycle, Lance could see how incredibly red Keith's ears were turning. Unconsciously, Lance was drifting even closer to the other, the sensation of Keith's hands on his arms sizzling through his entire body, setting his nerves on fire. Each minuscule movement of Keith's fingers sent tingly little jolts through his body. Between words the other paladin would sometimes bite his lip nervously, causing Lance to completely lose track of what he was even saying, eyes glued to the motion of his teeth sliding over his bottom lip. 

"I would train, you know, but… uh… hmm…" Keith trailed off with a guttural hum, finally noticing that Lance wasn't paying attention at all. 

When Lance finally tore his eyes away from Keith's lips to lock gazes, he heard him gulp. He could almost see Keith's deep dark eyes grow even darker, a certain tension entering his body. Suddenly, the hands around his arms tightened ever so slightly, making Lance take in a sharp breath. The heat of Keith's body was all around him now, his heart fluttering at being so totally enveloped by the other paladin. 

Lance wasn't sure who closed in first, but suddenly their lips were locked and they were stumbling further and further into Lance's dark room, arms thrown around each other. Neither heard the door sliding shut or the sound of something falling over as they bumped into it, both too engrossed in each other. Lance was eager to devour those lips Keith had been abusing with his teeth, growing more and more hungry for the taste of his breath and the feel of his body against his. 

Keith let out a mix between a growl and a moan when they stumbled into a desk, Lance letting out a small gasp at the feeling of the other paladin's body sliding against his. He could feel Keith trying to haul him on top of the table in his fervour, causing him to damn near lose his mind. "Keith…"

Immediately, Keith stopped moving. 

Now Lance could feel the red colour shooting into his own ears – all over his face actually. He couldn't believe the sound of his own voice: breathy and raspy and, most of all, incredibly needy. And before he ever had the chance to say anything, the world momentarily spun and twisted, Lance then landing on something soft and springy: his bed. Keith had picked him up and quite literally hoisted him on it. In an instant Keith was on him again, almost desperately climbing over Lance's body until there was seemingly no space left between them as Keith's demanding lips descended on his once more. 

Lance felt feverish, his entire body hot. He was only able to take in little sips of breath as he felt every shift and turn of Keith's body on top of him. Lance's hands were roaming wildly all over the other paladin's toned body, tearing at his clothes until he got that damn tight-fitting shirt off him. Suddenly, Keith greedily moaned into his mouth, teeth briefly nipping at Lance's kiss-swollen lips, before the Red Paladin began to wander elsewhere, lips leaving a trail of soft kisses and small bites across Lance's jaw and neck. There was a moment in which Lance inexplicably forgot how to breathe, how to get his body to do anything, really, until Keith began peppering more and more heated kisses over his neck. The sensation of Keith's hot breath against his skin, his wet mouth trailing over his neck sent him back to the here and now, Lance finding himself running his fingers further and further down Keith's back. Until he reached the waistband of the other paladin's loose sweatpants, where he hesitated.

While Keith continued abusing his neck like he was trying to slowly rob him of any ability to think straight, Lance could feel himself grow light-headed. To a concerning degree. His vision was darkening, strength rapidly leaving his body. And so quite abruptly, Lance grabbed Keith by the shoulders and flipped them over so he was sitting atop the other. "I couldn't breathe," he gasped, desperately taking in air. "You're heavy."

Keith had to gulp in air as well, but for another reason. "Sorry," he gasped quietly, sounding as though he didn't have the strength left to speak any louder. In his attempt to calm himself down, he threw an arm over his eyes, giving Lance a nice view of his toned chest and abs. 

Lance felt like a predator staring down at a plate of meat. He was hungrily eyeing the rises and dips of the muscles covering Keith's lean body as he breathed heavily, sweat beading on his pale skin. Hesitantly, he began tracing his fingers over the paladin's chest, mentally mapping out the shapes making up the finely chiseled body underneath him. When Keith let out a whiny moan at the sensation, Lance could feel the odd mixture of awkwardness and hesitation still clouding his mind dissipate almost instantly. Like a starved lion, he pulled Keith's arm away from his face to be able to get to those lips again, drinking them up eagerly. Keith seemed startled at first, but soon buried his hands in Lance's short hair, equally returning the enthusiasm. Their kiss was wet and messy, breaths mingling and tongues sliding against each other. 

When Lance eventually pulled away and sat up on top of Keith, he could see dark eyes gleaming back at him in the dark. Panting, heart racing wildly, it took him a moment to regain his bearings. Steadying himself with a hand on Keith's chest, Lance found himself totally unable to break eye contact with the other paladin. Somewhere along the way his robe had been discarded, leaving him in his loose blue pants and the thin shirt he wore to bed. He gulped when Keith suddenly shifted under him, the movement causing their groins to grind against each other. Lance heard Keith hiss under his breath in response, he himself barely suppressing another one of those incredibly needy noises. 

Once Keith had sat up as well, his hands began slowly gliding up Lance's thighs, the feel of his fingers electrifying, before settling on his hips with a firm grip. He was looking up at Lance now, bangs messily hanging in his face. "This is okay… right?"

Breathing slowly becoming less irregular, Lance got lost in Keith's earnest gaze for a second. He could still see the fire and wild energy reflected in those dark pools, but now there was also a certain fondness, like a small flickering light among a sea of shadow. "I'm good," Lance replied weakly, exhaustion ringing clear in his voice. "You're… kind of intense. It's almost impossible to think about anything else." Even though his words were meant to be reassuring, he could see something like fear flashing in Keith's eyes, prompting Lance to nervously brush the paladin's bangs out of his eyes. "What's wrong?"

Keith seemed speechless for a moment, mouth opening but no words passing his lips. His hands left Lance's hips, instead reaching up to settle around his face. "I completely forgot–… I came here and you were right there and I just…" His shoulders sagged slightly in defeat. "I couldn't control myself." 

The murmured words stunned Lance at first, but soon a lop-sided smile briefly pulled at his lips. "You know… you make me forget that I can't sleep." He could see the confusion immediately blooming on Keith's face, which brought the smile back to his own. "We'll be fine. Maybe not today or tomorrow but eventually." With newfound confidence, Lance then pushed Keith back into the bed, finding a lot of delight in the other's completely shell-shocked expression. "Until then, there's a lot of fun stuff we can do. I know at least _one_ thing I'm good at."

"What–?" Keith couldn't even finish the sentence before Lance was sliding down his body, hands trailing over his torso and his sides, eliciting a surprised gasp. "How–"

"Don't ask," Lance cut him off as he settled between Keith's legs, fingers lingering at the waistband of his sweatpants. "You'd just get mad." He chuckled to himself when he could almost feel Keith's eyes immediately boring into him, the weight of his growing ire palpable. "Trust me," he said huskily, before finally pulling down Keith's pants. 

* * *

When Lance opened his eyes, he expected the usual lethargy and general mind fog that came with waking up in the morning. Mouth dry, limbs heavy, he made to stretch to wake himself up, only to find his body weighed down by something. Something incredibly warm and soft, which wasn't part of his usual morning. "Keith…" he mumbled hoarsely, carefully propping himself up just enough so he could see the other paladin nestled in between his legs, head pillowed on his bare chest. Still somewhat dazed, Lance slowly laid back down and tried to make sense of this odd situation. 

Languidly running his fingers through Keith's wild bed hair, he suddenly remembered his first encounter with the Red Paladin after he had gotten thrown out of the garrison. Lance could still vividly remember his frustration and anger at Keith not even knowing who he was. Lance's presence had been so insignificant to him that he hadn't even taken note of his existence at any point in their time together in the same class. Knowing what Lance knew now, it of course made sense, but having that confirmed so blatantly had still stung quite a bit. Here he had been modelling quite a few choices in his life towards the end goal of one day trampling his rival into the ground, meanwhile Keith hadn't even spent the tiniest bit of energy even thinking of him. To now have that same Keith clinging to him like a needy child was a baffling turn of events, to say the least. 

Lance couldn't suppress a smile when his ministrations eventually woke Keith up. He watched as the brunet sleepily grumbled to himself, slowly lifting his head off Lance's chest to look up at him. 

"Mornin'," Keith mumbled, sleep still clinging to his voice and a yawn immediately leaving him. Eyes barely open, he then clumsily crawled up Lance's body until he could get close enough to press their lips together softly. 

It was tender and warm and _safe_. Lance could feel an overwhelming sense of content fill him up entirely. It was the sort of feeling that made him wish he could suspend this exact moment and this exact feeling in time so he could experience it forever. When he then felt their kiss slowly growing more heated again, Keith's breath growing shorter and his skin hotter, Lance felt like teasing him and broke the kiss to instead playfully bite at his lip. "You need to shower, man. You smell."

At first, Keith didn't seem to even register the words, eyes gleaming down at him like burning coals. "Your breath smells like a coyote took a dump in your mouth."

"Your breath doesn't smell any better, desert boy," Lance immediately shot back, pushing Keith away with a hand on his chest so he could sit up. "You know what would be hot?" He had to suppress a laugh at how instantly Keith's expression morphed into one of suspicion and preemptive disgust. "You in a cowboy outfit. But only a really goofy hat and boots."

Keith let out a sigh exasperated enough you would think he was about to break up with Lance right there and storm out of the room. At least until he suddenly settled a hooded gaze on the paladin staring up at him. "If you dress up like a bandit and tie me up, I'm in."

The words and the ensuing image they created in Lance's head awoke something deep inside him he hadn't even known existed, like a rumbling storm suddenly washing over him. He could almost feel a growl work its way up his throat, like he has was about to pounce on Keith. He suddenly understood how Keith would lose his mind being around him. If it was like this for him all the time, he could easily see himself dissolving into a one-track-minded idiot as well. 

Just as both Lance and Keith wordlessly determined that this tension needed some kind of outlet, a knock made them both jump.

"Lance?" a muffled voice called from outside.

"It's Allura," Keith hissed quietly, eyed wide with shock. "What do we do?"

"Hide here." Lance quickly shuffled out of the bed and nearly tripped on his way out. "Just press up against the wall so she doesn't see you." When Keith nodded at him with terror in his eyes, Lance hastily went about getting dressed. "Gimme a sec!" he shouted as he tried jumping into his pants. He continued noisily stumbling around his room like that until he was decently dressed, took a quick breath to calm himself, then made to open his door. 

The door slid open to reveal a somewhat nervous-looking Allura, her smile kind despite her nervously fidgeting with her fingers. "Good morning, Lance," she greeted him, hiding her hands behind her back. "You seem healthy." 

Her genuine expression of pleasant surprise brought a smile to Lance's face as well. "I feel a lot better, yeah." He couldn't help but grin, even as he was quite stiffly blocking the door to divert any attempts at even glancing into his room. "Slept pretty well. So what's up? Something wrong?"

Allura seemed to notice the concern creeping into Lance's eyes and immediately shook her head. "No, everything is fine. I simply…" Trailing off, she suddenly seemed nervous again, the fact that she was still fidgeting with her hands behind her back quite obvious. "I wanted to apologise. For the things I said to you and for doubting you."

Lance had to rack his brain for a moment to even remember what Allura was apologising for, but then he remembered the crushing feeling of having her yell at him for not talking in detail about what had happened in Persia. "Oh…" He went silent for only a moment, noticing that Allura seemed to feel genuinely bad about what had happened. "Already forgot about it, don't worry. You were right to be suspicious, so don't take it to heart. I probably would've been suspicious of me too in that situation."

Her expression brightening again, a smile bloomed on Allura's face. "Thank you, Lance. I promise I will try to trust you more in the future." As she said this, her eyes suddenly oddly zoned in on Lance. "Also… I have been wondering, but why do you seem so tense? Is anything wrong? Are you not feeling well after all? I could take you to the medical wing–"

"No, no, I'm fine!" Lance immediately interjected; slightly too fast, he realised a second later. That had only intensified Allura's confusion. "How can I not be nervous when the most beau–" His words died in his throat when he could almost _feel_ Keith glaring at him from his bed. "I-I… uh… I guess I'm still kinda out of it. Hah…"

Allura continued peering at him like she was still contemplating carting him off to the med wing despite his insistence that he was fine. "Well… rest for the day, if you need to. If anything urgent comes up, I will let you know." 

"Yeah, thanks, Allura," Lance had to suppress a sigh of relief when Allura simply nodded and finally left, disappearing down the hallway. Once she was out of sight and he could finally relax again, Lance could feel his legs grow weak and he almost sank to the floor. "She's gone," he sighed, slowly slumping back into his room as his door slid shut. "That was close." As soon as he turned to face Keith, he could see in the other paladin's face that something was wrong. "What's up?"

Immediately, Keith lowered his head, as though trying to hide his thoughts. "It's just…" He trailed off, silently mulling over something for a while. Eventually, he lifted his head again to lock gazes with a confused Lance. "We'll have to tell everyone eventually, won't we?"

Speechless, Lance could only stare back at Keith listlessly. He hadn't even thought that far yet. Things between them were only just kicking off and already they had to consider all these incoming changes. To say it was slightly overwhelming would be an understatement. "I guess so, yeah. We can't hide it forever." Letting out another sigh, Lance sat down on his bed next to Keith, eyes trained on the bland ceiling of his room. "Who do we tell first?"

"Shiro?" Keith immediately answered. "He could help us break it to the others."

After thinking it over for a moment, Lance nodded. "Yeah, sounds reasonable." The events of the past few days still felt incredibly surreal and unbelievable to Lance, so he couldn't quite find it in himself to be nervous just yet. He was still waiting to wake up and find out that all of this had been a dream. But before he could drift off even more into his own thoughts, he noticed the odd look on Keith's face. "Why are you of all people worrying about this more than I am?" He chuckled slightly when Keith's expression instantly morphed into a frown. "What's the worst that can happen? It's not like they can throw us out over this. Paladins are hard to come by."

Keith slumped down slightly and shrugged. "Dunno. Just thinking about how much things will change." 

Lance watched the other's solemn expression for a moment, before letting himself fall backwards across his bed. With his arms splayed out wide and Keith shifting around to look back at him, he suddenly grinned. "Whatever's gonna happen, it can't possibly be worse than whatever has already happened, right?"

"Don't jinx it," Keith immediately grumbled with a frown. 

Chuckling at the half-serious tone, Lance sat back up and ended up sitting shoulder to shoulder with Keith. "It's gonna be fine."

Keith didn't answer. He simply stared down at the floor, looking deep in thought, before simply nodding his head. Lance unwittingly mimicked him, nodding to himself like he was still trying to convince himself. 

They both knew things would change a lot and they were both terrified of it. But they also knew that they had already gotten through enough together; whatever was in store for them, they would be able to handle it. That much they knew for certain.

* * *

Hours, then days passed and soon, a week had gone by. An entire week and still Keith and Lance hadn't been able to muster up the courage to come clean about their relationship to the rest of the team. Their days were filled with the almost mind-numbing desire to constantly be around each other, always touching in some way even if it was nothing but their hands secretly brushing against each other. But they were also filled with constant anxiety over their team members finding out before they could explain everything themselves. And every night, without fail, either one would sneak into the other one's room, where they would spend entire nights together, only separating in the early morning to sneak back into their own rooms. In a way, it was exhilarating. Especially for Lance it felt like he was truly being a rebellious, adventure-having teenager for the first time in his life. 

The week was otherwise filled with various relatively simple missions. Escorting politicians around, sitting down with representatives from different planets to discuss alliances, as well as interfering with the Galra as usual. Between all that there wasn't much time to really sit down with everyone and chat about their relationship. Allura already had enough on her hands, having to check in with Velanos almost daily to see how the people of Persia were doing. It forced her to talk with grim old mayors from the other cities, all of which she seemed to dislike more than even Baki. They were bull-headed and quite obviously looked down on her. More than once the team would catch her in the middle of chastising one of them for being so dismissive about the events that had transpired in one of their neighbouring cities. It seemed like her and the Velonians would never see eye to eye. On the other hand, the lack of communication with the Orak was slightly concerning. Aside from a small transmitter they had left with them so they could call for Voltron in times of an emergency, there really was no way to communicate with them. Their rudimentary lifestyle simply did not allow it. 

These things were swirling through Lance's mind as he laid slouched in his pilot chair in the bridge, staring up through the transparent ceiling above into the endlessly dark galaxy. He had grown unexpectedly fond of both the Velonians and the Orak and being unable to help them in any way was upsetting. He had to watch from a distance as Persia tried rebuilding itself somehow and still he felt like he had had a part in the utter destruction of the once shimmering city. 

Just as Lance sighed, he heard the door to the bridge slide open. He could already imagine who it was, so he didn't even bother turning his head away from where he was staring up at the stars. Lazily, with somewhat sleepy eyes, he searched for random constellations as steps approached him from behind. The sound eventually stopped right behind his pilot chair and a moment later, Keith's face appeared in his vision. Immediately Lance reached up to push his face away. "Don't put your big dumb face in between me and those lovely stars." 

"Fine, I'll leave."

"No, wait!" In an instant Lance had jumped out of his chair. "I mean… uh…" As soon as he saw the smug smirk forming on Keith's face, he sat back down in a huff. "It's not like I told you to piss off or anything." He could hear Keith chuckling to himself behind him, walking off somewhere. Curious, Lance then watched him saunter to his own pilot chair, then letting himself fall into it like a sack of potatoes. "Rough day?" he immediately asked in a mocking tone. Even now that they were together he couldn't help but tease and annoy Keith still. It was probably one of the main reasons no one had caught on yet. Unless one paid very close attention, their relationship hadn't changed much.

"The worst," Keith grumbled. "Not only does the universe need constant saving but I also have the worst boyfriend imaginable."

"Whyyyy? What did I do?" Lance immediately whined, sitting up straighter.

Keith turned around in his chair to send an exasperated look at the other paladin, brows pulled together into the beginnings of a frown. "You left your dirty underwear in my room again, you pig! With all that skin care stuff you do you'd think you're a clean person, but noooo. This morning I had to tell Shiro that yeah, of course I wear pizza print briefs! I _always_ have."

"Oooh, I was wondering where those went!" Lance had to suppress a grin when his words only caused Keith's frown to deepen. "I'll pick 'em up later, promise." As soon as Keith huffily turned back around and stared ahead, Lance couldn't stop himself from smiling anymore. A week into it, the fact that him and Keith were a couple now was still unbelievable. Every night he fell asleep expecting to wake up in the morning alone with himself and his own thoughts, his demons. But he never did. Instead, he woke up surrounded by Keith each time.  

After only a brief moment of hesitation, Lance got off his pilot chair and approached the one Keith was in. The other paladin was in the middle of turning around to say something to him when he noticed Lance walking towards him, which caused him to go silent immediately; as though he had instantly forgotten what he was going to say. Wordlessly, Lance settled on Keith's lap, legs coming down next to Keith's thighs. It was a tight fight in the narrow pilot chair, but they made it work. Feeling his own body grow hot, Lance could see Keith's gaze go half-lidded, lips parting in anticipation. A second later they were kissing, Lance's arms coming up to wrap around Keith's neck to pull him even closer, Keith's hands finding their place on his hips. Slowly, they began rocking against each other, eventually coaxing a small moan out of Keith.

Hearing the noise, Lance smiled into the kiss and was about to delve even deeper, when an incessant beeping finally entered his consciousness. "What's that noise?" he gasped after pulling away from Keith, the taste of his lips still lingering on his tongue.

Dazed, Keith followed after Lance and immediately recaptured his lips. "Hmn?"

"Your controls, hah…" Finding it harder and harder to part from Keith for even a second with how persistent he was, Lance unlocked his arms from around the other paladin to push away from him and turn around. "Your controls turned on. And something's blinking." 

"Ignore it," Keith growled, pulling Lance closer again.

"But–" Before Lance could even attempt to argue, Keith grabbed the back of his head and gently guided their lips back together again. It was nigh impossible to resist Keith when he was this forceful yet careful. Even in moments when Lance felt remotely uncomfortable, Keith would find ways to make him feel at ease again. Any moment of mild aggression was followed up with a sweet gesture meant to soothe him. And Lance was convinced Keith didn't even know he was doing it. It was some sort of innate thing that Keith would just unknowingly do by instinct. And that was only one of many things that drew Lance to Keith so strongly. 

An evil laugh left Lance when he could feel Keith growing hard underneath him, causing him to grind down into the other even harder, which elicited a sharp intake of air. He broke the kiss and began tracing his fingers all the way down Keith's firm chest and stomach. This time, Keith stayed still and watched his movements closely, sharp gaze burning with desire. Once Lance's fingers reached the waistband of his sweatpants, their eyes met and he almost lost himself. As his fingers slowly dove into Keith's loose pants, he fell forward to reclaim Keith's lips again and moaned into the other paladin's mouth.

What neither expected was the bridge door suddenly sliding open and so neither even really noticed at first. At least until several voices suddenly reached their ears.

"Lance?"

With a surprised yelp, Lance fell off of Keith's lap and onto the floor, panicked eyes darting around the room until they fell on a confused Shiro in full paladin armour. 

"What's going on?" Shiro continued. "Why are you in Keith's chair– Wait… Keith? What…"

Just as Keith fumbled to sit upright in his chair and make himself look more presentable, Lance noticed that Allura and Coran along with the rest of the team were all coming into the room looking alert and ready for battle, now staring at them like they had both grown a second head. 

Shiro seemed to notice the confusion and panic on Lance's face and took mercy. "You guys activated the alarm when you were uh… you know…"

Bewildered, Lance snapped his head around to peer at the red light still flashing on Keith's controls. He then directed an accusing glare at Keith. "I told you so!"

Keith simply stared back at him with his lips pressed together and clear terror in his eyes, before silently turning off the alarm and then his controls. After having mostly avoided everyone's eyes for the most part, Keith finally got up from his chair to face them, urging Lance to do the same.

Still terrified, Lance picked himself up from the floor, but couldn't quite get his legs to work, which prompted Keith to help him stand up. They ended up standing nearly shoulder to shoulder, supporting each other because otherwise probably neither would have been able to stand at all.

"Um… surprise?" Lance tried to smile, but couldn't muster up the courage to do even that. All he was met with was stunned confusion. 

As one would expect, the first one to cut through the ensuing silence was Pidge. "So are you two dating?"

Unwittingly, Lance's hand reached up to grip at Keith's sleeve like a safety blanket of sorts. His throat was suddenly incredibly dry and he knew that even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to form words. Looking to his side, he could somehow tell Keith was in the same predicament. Keith then nervously glanced sideways as well and they shared a long look, before facing forward again and slowly nodding, confirming everyone's suspicions.

They both flinched a little when Shiro let out a sharp sigh, while everyone else still looked puzzled and at a loss for words.

"So…" Still lost, it took Shiro a moment to collect himself. "I mean… congratulations, first of all. But also how long has this been going?"

Lance could hear Keith gulp next to him, before he spoke up.

"Officially, for a week," Keith answered quietly. Seeing Shiro's eyebrows rise in a questioning manner, he elaborated. "In general… since the Orak forest, I guess."

"How…" Shiro cut himself off, looking to be struggling both with the need to ask questions, but also the fear of scaring the two off somehow. "Did any of you know about this going on?" he then asked, turning around to the others. Allura and Coran silently shook their heads, eyes still filled with surprise, while Pidge merely shrugged and Hunk avoided Shiro's eyes. "Hunk?"

"Uh… I had a hunch," the paladin quietly replied, fidgeting.

After taking a deep breath, Shiro turned back around to Lance and Keith. "Okay, so… any particular reason you were hiding it? Did you think we wouldn't approve or something?"

Sensing that Shiro felt slightly hurt by the revelation, Lance finally found his voice, Keith next to him looking uneasy as well. "No, Shiro, we just… we weren't really trying to hide it! We were just waiting for the right time to tell you guys but it never came! We were going to tell you eventually, I swear."

Dark eyes stormy with emotion, Shiro glanced back and forth between Lance and Keith, seemingly reigning in his conflicting feelings. "I believe you," he eventually sighed, shoulders sagging slightly. "I'm just disappointed that you both felt like you couldn't just come out and say it. I wish this could have gone differently."

"Same here," Keith said in a quiet, slightly hoarse voice. "I'm sorry."

Shiro let out another quiet sigh, crossed his arms and lightly kicked at the floor. "Well… it's late. I think we should all go back to sleep. And then tomorrow we can celebrate."

Still somewhat nervous, it took Shiro beaming at them warmly for Lance and Keith to finally loosen up and smile back. And soon enough, everyone was quietly filing out of the bridge and back to their beds, leaving Lance and Keith behind still feeling awkward and slightly overwhelmed. Even though they had expected things to go over relatively okay, they still both felt a wave of relief washing over them once the bridge door slid shut, marking the end of a long and stressful week. 

"That went… fine," Keith then mumbled, arm almost automatically sliding around Lance's shoulders to pull him closer. 

At first, Lance only nodded, throat still feeling too dry to be able to speak. But after a while he began leaning into Keith and his entire body felt like it was slowly relaxing. "Does this mean that now I can grab your ass even when there's other people around?"

"It doesn't," Keith immediately dead-panned, pushing away from Lance.

Lance simply shrugged and shot a lop-sided smirk at his boyfriend. "Not like there's much to grab anyway."

Immediately, red color shot into Keith's face as he spun around to glare at the other paladin. "I don't wanna hear that from someone who's as flat as a fucking board!" 

"I could say the exact same thing about you, you literal beanpole." Despite his words, a mischievous Lance then approached Keith, who proceeded to back away from him with a defiant frown. With a smirk widening on his face, Lance continued backing Keith up this way.

"What're you–" Keith's words were cut off when the back of his legs bumped into his own pilot chair and he stumbled into it. Still somewhat surprised, he looked up to find Lance gazing down at him with half-lidded bedroom eyes, making him gulp.

Satisfied with the reaction, Lance placed a knee next to Keith's thigh, making his intentions clear. "Wanna continue where we left off earlier?"

"What if they come back?" Keith whispered, voice going even quieter when Lance sat down on his lap. 

Any further questions or protests were silenced with a kiss. This time it was gentle and slow, filled with content sighs and little hums. Lance could feel Keith melting underneath him, the other paladin's hands never quite making it anywhere but the back of his sleeping shirt. When he felt Keith's fingers gently running circles over his shoulders and back, some of the tension in his muscles being massaged out, he couldn't help but quietly moan into the kiss.   

When they eventually broke the kiss, Lance slowly opened his eyes and glanced down to find Keith staring up at him with an unreadable look. As openly as Keith usually displayed his emotions on his face, he still had moments in which Lance had absolutely no idea what he was thinking. This was one such moment. "What're you thinking about?" Lance asked him.

Keith didn't respond right away, instead seeming content simply fiddling with the hem of Lance's pants. After a while, his hand slowly made its way across Lance's stomach, up to his shoulders, then down to his arm, where Keith loosely grabbed a hold of it. "Thanks for helping me sleep."

Though initially confused, Lance eventually felt like he understood what Keith was saying, prompting him to lean down far enough that they could almost kiss again. "Never in my life would I have thought that Keith Kogane likes to be cuddled when he sleeps. I should record you one of these days. Seems like perfect blackmail material." The immediate response he got was Keith pinching his thigh and directing an annoyed glare at him. Laughing despite the short jolt of pain, Lance watched as Keith's frustration gradually eased away again, especially when Lance began playing with the hair at the nape of his neck. "But seriously, we both sleep pretty well these days, huh?"

Keith seemed completely distracted by Lance's ministrations, so it took him an extra second to respond. "Your nightmares are starting to get better, for one."

Slightly taken aback by Keith's matter-of-factness, Lance's smile wavered slightly and became a bit stiff. "I didn't know I had those. Even now it's a bit hard to believe cause I never remember anything."

"My bruised back would like to have a word with you."

Chuckling slightly, Lance leaned down to press his forehead against Keith's. "Sorry about that," he murmured with a smile. 

Lance truly couldn't remember ever having nightmares. It did explain why his blanket was always wrapped around his body in odd ways or dumped on the floor whenever he woke up. It also explained the previously inexplicable feeling he got each morning that his night had been incredibly stressful, no matter how he slept. Over the past week, Keith had woken him up a few times in the middle of the night because he had been jerking around in his sleep, moaning and grinding his teeth, all telltale signs of nightmares. He genuinely hadn't believed Keith's words until he showed him the bruises on his back from Lance accidentally hitting him during his nightly fits. 

"You know what?" Keith suddenly spoke up, prompting Lance to lean away slightly so they could lock eyes. "We don't have to sneak around anymore."

Seeing the glint in Keith's dark eyes and hearing the low tone of his voice, realisation dawned on Lance and he was soon mirroring the mischievous grin on Keith's face. "Everyone's gonna _hate_ us."

"Not if we're quiet."

"Can you be quiet?" Lance chuckled with doubt swimming in his eyes.

"Can _you_?" 

Lance half-heartedly smacked Keith at the mocking tone, but couldn't help laughing anyway. Seeing Keith looking up at him with badly concealed adoration and fondness, he suddenly felt a surreal moment of clarity, where all the events of the past weeks suddenly rushed through his mind, but without leaving behind a trail of destruction through his emotional equilibrium like they usually did. The memories simply passed by, allowing him to view them in a neutral and clear-headed way. Being able to do that after weeks of constantly dreading his own memories felt so utterly freeing that it almost brought tears to his eyes. "If I could go back…" he suddenly spoke up, voice barely loud enough for Keith to hear, "I'm not sure if I would change anything. I wouldn't be the person I am now and I really like the person I am right now. And I don't think we would've gotten together either. So… I probably wouldn't change a thing."

Any semblance of composure completely slipped from Keith's face at the words and a multitude of emotions flashed over his face, his inner turmoil freely laid out for anyone to see. Happiness, regret, guilt, uncertainty all mingled in his stormy gaze, leaving little room for anything else. "You really mean that?"

Lance was grinning, even though he felt his heart sink seeing the almost tortured look on Keith's face. "You're not gonna start crying, are you?" Even when Keith smacked him for the jab he continued smiling. "I really mean it," Lance then murmured, pressing his forehead against Keith's again. "I'll get over this. If it means I can spend the rest of my life kicking your ass even while I sleep, it's all worth it."

This time, Keith didn't even have the energy left to smack Lance again and simply let out a long sigh. Despite Lance's antics, he couldn't quite suppress a smile. "I think differently, obviously. If I could go back and change things so you never go through all that horrible shit… I would. In a heartbeat. I'd like to believe we would have ended up together no matter what, but…" He trailed off, reluctant to even speak the words. "It's true, you were a different person before all this."

Half a smile on his face, Lance eyed Keith for a moment. How guilt washed over his face as he said those words, how his brow was creased slightly with stress, how he was just barely pressing his lips together anxiously. Keith was incredibly expressive and anyone who said otherwise simply wasn't observant enough. Lance clearly hadn't been in the past, otherwise he probably wouldn't have misunderstood him as much as he had. "I'd like to say _Don't do dumb and dangerous shit because of me_ , but I know you would anyway."

Keith's lips finally quirked up into a small smile. "For once you're right about something."

"Hey," Lance protested weakly, slowly growing too lethargic to be all that upset at Keith's jab. Dropping his face into Keith's shoulder, he could feel his own body slowly unwind, eyes and limbs growing heavy. "I'm tired." 

"Me too," Keith mumbled back, lazily stroking Lance's back. 

Despite their admissions, the two continued staying as they were, simply existing in each other's space and taking in the other's presence. Sitting the way they were was quite uncomfortable and not constantly throwing jabs at each other or even talking at all was still awkward. And yet they had found a rare moment in which none of that mattered. What had happened in Persia didn't matter, what their journey as paladins of Voltron still had in store for them in the future didn't matter. All that mattered was this moment, both entirely enveloped in each other's presence, hearing the other person breathing and simply existing. 

"Let's go to sleep," Lance eventually mumbled into Keith's shoulder, before sleepily lifting his head to lock eyes with Keith. "I might actually fall asleep if we stay like this any longer."

For a moment, Keith looked like he wanted to say that he wouldn't mind, but then his face shifted into a smirk again. "Your room or mine?" 

Soon enough Lance was matching Keith's smirk, albeit with a more mischievous edge. "Mine for sure," he purred in a low voice. "Your room is right next to Shiro's and I don't want awkward and slightly concerned dad eyes on me tomorrow morning."

Even though he looked like he wanted to protest somehow, Keith nodded. "Sure, let's go."

The second Lance slid off Keith's lap, some part of his body gave a loud crack, eliciting a small groan from him and a badly suppressed snort from Keith.

"Make sure not to trip and break both your legs, old man," Keith immediately mocked him as he made his way out of the bridge. He was already ahead of Lance and turned around to shoot a smirk at him.

"Just you wait till I get my hands on you and clobber you with my walking stick, kiddo." 

They continued bantering back and forth like that all the way to Lance's room, their feet carrying them to their destination all on their own. There was a certain familiarity to their relationship and the way they interacted. They had fallen into a shared daily routine almost right away, without so much as a conversation about how they wanted to define their relationship. Both had been certain that there would be a _talk_ , some kind of stressful and long-winded conversation about boundaries and anxieties that could lead to both slowly coming to the realisation that this relationship of theirs was a mistake. But it never happened. They simply had no need for it. Yes, they were dating now, but aside from the physical aspect, not much had changed between them. They still bickered and fought, still got upset at each other over minor things. In their minds, they would continue being like this for the rest of their lives.

It had been a gradual realisation, albeit a simple one: there was no need to define anything or draw lines in the proverbial sand. If something didn't work, they would work it out as it happened. Neither of them were the type to think all that far ahead, so why start now? It was much easier on both of them to simply take things one at a time, day by day, figuring things out along the way. It forced them to focus on the present instead of the past or the future.

In the present, they had each other. And that was all that mattered.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! I deliberated about the ending and the finishing lines for a long time, but figured I would never upload this if I kept stressing over it, so this is how I'll leave it.
> 
> I know I sort of promised an epilogue and it's definitely necessary, I just don't know if it's gonna be a thing any time soon. I struggled a lot with this chapter already, so I might just work on other projects for a while and then come back for it. I already have two pretty fleshed out WIPs I want to post in the near future, with a third one already in the works, so writing an epilogue as well would just be too time-consuming. If I ever decide not to do one after all, I'll just delete any mention of it from this story, but for now it's just gonna be something I will do someday.
> 
> Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the ride and thanks for all the nice comments and the kudos along the way!


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